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Policing of youth in the hospital
Katherine Hoops1, Erin Hall2, Cassandra Ramdath3
1Johns Hopkins Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Georgetown University Law Center, Washington DC, USA.
Insights
Pediatric clinicians must understand legal guidelines for law enforcement interactions with youth in hospitals. Educating healthcare providers ensures patient rights and quality care are protected during these critical encounters.
Area of Science:
- Legal medicine
- Pediatric healthcare
- Public health policy
Background:
- Millions of children, particularly from marginalized groups, access emergency care without consistent primary/preventive services.
- Pediatric emergency departments serve as a critical interface between healthcare and legal systems for vulnerable youth.
- Law enforcement presence is common in emergency settings, impacting youth and families.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine legal issues concerning police interactions with minors in hospital settings.
- To address patient privacy, information disclosure, questioning, visitation, autonomy, restraints, and property rights.
- To identify challenges faced by clinicians caring for vulnerable children in these contexts.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of medical and legal scholarship.
- Analysis of case law related to healthcare and legal systems.
- Searches conducted across PubMed, Westlaw, and Lexis databases.
Main Results:
- Identified significant legal themes impacting care for vulnerable children.
- Highlighted challenges for clinicians navigating law enforcement interactions.
- Revealed potential for unwitting violations of patient rights.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric clinicians often lack awareness of legal procedures governing law enforcement interactions with youth.
- Knowledge gaps can lead to patient rights violations and compromised healthcare quality.
- Essential to educate clinicians on safeguarding patient privacy, autonomy, and fostering collaboration with law enforcement.
Background:
Each year millions of children seek care in emergency departments, many of whom are from marginalized and minoritized groups who lack access to primary and preventive care. Law enforcement personnel are also commonly present in pediatric and adult emergency departments serving in a range of roles. Therefore, pediatric emergency departments sit at the nexus of the health system and the legal system for many vulnerable youth and families.
Objective:
Herein, we explore several common specific legal issues surrounding policing of youth in the hospital setting: patient privacy and disclosure of information, questioning and visitation restriction, autonomy and decision making, restraints and use of force, and patient property.
Methods:
Our team of legal scholars and clinician researchers examined the literature on policing of youth in healthcare settings and patients' legal rights in healthcare settings through searches using PubMed, Westlaw, and Lexis.
Findings:
Through rigorous analysis of the medical literature, legal scholarship, and relevant case law, several important themes were identified which present challenges to clinicians caring for vulnerable children.
Conclusions And Relevance:
Pediatric clinicians, highly trained professionals in the medical and social care of youth and children, are often unaware of legal rules and procedures that guide law enforcement interaction with youth. This lack of knowledge may result in unknowing and unwitting violations of patients' rights while also compromising the quality of health care provided. Therefore, it is imperative that clinicians are educated on their roles and their institutions' roles in safeguarding patients' privacy and autonomy while still promoting effective collaboration with law enforcement.
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