Week 2 Assignment 1: Ethical Situation
MGMT 6213 – 50887
Northeastern University
RUNNING HEAD: WEEK 2 ASSIGNMENT 1: ETHICAL SITUATION

Abstract
In 2009, I encountered an ethical situation while managing a solo-practice (single doctor)
medical office. The office had a patient, “Mr. Joe”, who was well-liked and respected by the
office staff. Mr. Joe was an elderly gentleman in his eighties, and was a highly decorated Korean
war veteran and an elder at the local church. Unfortunately, Mr. Joe had recently been diagnosed
with a debilitating type of bone cancer and was wheelchair-bound, in chronic pain, and on longterm therapy with a strong, opiate-based pain medication. The ethical dilemma occurred when
Mr. Joe’s medications were stolen and we had internal disagreements on whether or not we
would refill them for him.
The incident started when we received a message from Mr. Joe’s wife who informed us
that her purse had been stolen and with it, Mr. Joe’s entire bag of prescriptions were gone. She
asked us for early refills on all of his medications, including his pain medication. At the time of
the call, Mr. Joe had been on this opiate-based therapy for almost three years and there was no
doubt that if he were to suddenly stop taking this medication, he would not only be in severe
pain, but also endure significant opiate withdrawal symptoms. Another important detail to note
is that for all intents and purposes, Mr. Joe was taking this medication exactly as prescribed and
for legitimate reasons. In fact, he passed every illicit drug screening, never went to another
doctor for the same medication, and always picked up his prescription on schedule and from the
same pharmacy. He also had imaging studies and a robust medical history of surgeries and
treatments that strongly supported his reasons for being on this medication for the long-term.
When we got the message from Mr. Joe’s wife, as timing would have it, our doctor – who
had been prescribing the medication regularly for Mr. Joe – was out of the country on
bereavement leave due to the sudden death of his mother. He was unreachable by phone and
would not be back for at least a few more days. While he was gone, we had a nurse practitioner
(NP) who was able to prescribe medications on his behalf. Legally, this was not an issue, as the
Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia allows NPs to write prescriptions for controlled
medications on behalf of doctors under a written protocol, which we had in place. The problem
was that the NP, having never examined Mr. Joe herself,