Analysis of a Critical Situation

Analysis of a Critical Regulatory Issue in Health Care
Alfreda Bostick
HCS/430
December 5, 2011
Lori Lewellen

Analysis of a Critical Regulatory Issue in Health Care
There are many types of critical regulatory issues that trouble the medical field. Never has anything been more important that the critical regulatory issue been more important than dealing with life or death. When a situation of this nature arises, a person must follow his or her own morals. The case of a woman that is 11 weeks pregnant desiring immediate health care involves an entire hospitals religious beliefs for her life makes the decision that more difficult.   This paper is going to assess a situation of this nature in St. Joseph’s Hospital of Phoenix where such a decision suffered and caused complications.
St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, is known nationally for their neurological department. Even though St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center has treated high profile patients such as Brett Michaels and Muhammad Ali even though they have not gained the publicity for St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, as a woman that was 11 weeks pregnant needing treatment back in November,   2009. Although St. Joseph’s hospital is recognized nationally for their neurology department they have a wonderful obstetrics department, and here is where the woman was treated (St. Joseph’s Hospital, 2011).
Sister Margaret McBride was forced to make a decision between her faith and the woman’s life in 2009. This woman was 27 years of age and a mother of four. When rushed to the hospital, she was 11 weeks pregnant. Mary Jo McDonald says that McBride prayed and prayed and was sure this was like a ton of bricks on McBride’s shoulders. This woman was suffering from pulmonary hypertension. This was an illness the doctors at St. Joseph’s Hospital believed would kill her and her unborn child if she did not abort the pregnancy (Harris, 2010).
McBride was a key member of the...