Legal Aspects of Hospital Management 

Medical Law is a discrete autonomous discipline that governs rights and responsibilities of medical professionals and their patients. It tends to revolve around a set of central concerns such as confidentiality, negligence, ethics and other torts related to medical treatment. Medical paternalism is an approach that states that 'doctor knows best'. The statement holds good when a doctor acts reasonably and logically to address a set of facts. Traditionally there exists an intricate relationship between clinical ethics, law and risk management. Clinical ethics determines what ought to be done or not done during healthcare delivery. Laws are a set of enforceable social rules the violation of which creates criminal or civil liabilities. Risk management attempts to reduce potential risk and liability through institutional policies or practices. Ethics is the beginning where law ends. Both ethics and law share the goal of creating and maintaining social good through a symbiotic relationship. These three disciplines thus significantly overlap in the framing of legal and other benchmarks in any healthcare setting.

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