Delays in Treatment Lawsuit Case
The right to healthcare is an entitlement inherent to all citizens of the state, which acts as an overriding interest over all other considerations for the provision of health services. This has not always been the case, thus, depicting delay as a primary reason for outcomes like death and permanent infliction of injuries and diseases that could have been cured or prevented. This paper will analyze the causes of delays in treatment and find the outcomes of the delay. This analysis will be done in relying on the prison delays in receiving treatment supported by the lawsuit filed by William Kent Dean.
William Kent Dean sued Wexford for the delay in being diagnosed as well as delay in receiving the appropriate treatment. This lawsuit involved a claim that it took four months for the health providers to carry out a diagnosis on William following his report of bold clots in his urine. Once the diagnosis was made and concluded, they made him wait for three months to carry out the necessary surgery on him to cure the problem. This case begs the question of why prisoners have a hard time accessing off-site health care.
Delay in treatment happens due to the long processes that have to be followed to access off-site care. The procedures involve identifying that the sick person needs off-site service, the person has to acquire an authorization number, the department has to make an appointment with a doctor free to receive the patient which also includes filing of paperwork and finally the requirement to follow up with the progress of the patient. These factors are more often carried out inefficiently. They all take a lot of time to finish. Goldberg, in her article, noted that a report released by Raba stated that there are instances where Wexford doctors without patient contact would deny patients in prison services (Goldberg,2020). These delays don’t happen because of the backlog but because of inefficacy in considering prisoners.
Delay in some situations may occur because of dual-tasking. This can happen in cases where a company carries out two services that impact on each other. Wexford Health Sources plays the role of a health provider as well as insurance. They, therefore, have to provide services taking into account the best ways to save on cost. They may cut back on cost without taking into account that people need quality treatment (Goldbery,2020)) Further affecting the levels of efficient treatment for the patients. Contracts in situations of healthcare may involve the creation of targets that have to be met within a specified period; thus, to fulfill these targets, the organizations ensure their records prove every goal was met even if it means delaying procedures. Wexford Health Sources has a contract with the State of Illinois to provide healthcare services since 1992; thus, their mode of carrying out business has become a norm. The weakness is in the contract in that it states that Wexford is to be deducted any time it goes beyond what is advocated for annually. (Goldberg,2020)Thus, showing that there are prisoners who will have to be the sacrificial lamb to ensure the budget remains within its confines. Following these acts subjected to the patients, claims of preventable deaths and permanent injuries and diseases occur. In the case filed by William Kent Dean, the court found Wexford Health Sources to be liable, offering the plaintiff 11 million dollars worth of damages.
In conclusion, treatment has been identified as a possible reason for diseases that become permanent to prisoners, which may later amount to death, as stated above. The paper relying on the lawsuit filed by William Kent Dean shows that reasons for this delay are conflicting duties carried out by health care providers such as providing health and insurance as well as for instructions by contracts between parties. The paper finds out that as a result of delays in treatment, patients succumbed to death while some have gone through advanced treatments that would have been prevented if they were treated at the right time.