Ethical and Legal Issues in Geriatric Rehabilitation: 2019 Update (2026)

This course overviews salient ethicolegal issues facing health professionals who practice and/or teach geriatric rehabilitation and facilitate optimal health and lifestyle maintenance for their geriatric clientele. The current practice environment is fraught with litigation potential. Practitioners need to be cognizant of the multi-level laws (constitutional mandates, statutes, case law, and administrative regulations) affecting them and their geriatric patients and clients, both to self-protect against avoidable liability exposure, and to best serve their patients and clients under care. As fiduciaries, geriatric rehabilitation professionals are charged by law and by professional ethics codes to put patients’ and clients’ best interests first. The managed care model may make this obligation more difficult to fulfill, as geriatric and other clinical providers are expected to generate more and more revenue for their employing entities. Ethicolegal duties, however, do not change to accommodate managed health care delivery. This course is targeted toward intermediate to advanced-level professionals and professional students in physical, occupational and speech therapy, nursing and, for geriatric recreational athletes, athletic training.