Introduction
Betting on ethical management is a basis for well-organized healthcare administration concerned with the high standards of health service, taking into account ethical principles and legal regulations. This paper aims to share observations from an interview with Dr. Emily Smith, who is the CEO of Mercy General Hospital, based on the question of ethics in healthcare management. Besides that, it points to crucial lessons from the course of study, books, online tutorials, and other material that can be of further use.
Interview Questions and Responses
Pros and Cons of Health Information Exchanges (HIEs) and Electronic Health Records (EHRs):
Dr. Smith has pointed out the key advantages of HIEs and EHRs, such as facilitating the care coordination process among providers and patients’ access to accurate and up-to-date information, which can reduce unnecessary medical errors. Through HIEs and EHRs, healthcare providers can quickly get patients’ complete records at short notice, thus ensuring that applied treatment protocols are more individualized and less through duplication of tests and procedures (Varkey, 2021). They, too, can provide the care linkage by sharing not only a patient’s medical information but also that piece of information which facilitates teamwork among healthcare professionals in a patient’s treatment. On the other hand, Dr Smith also mentioned the issue of the data security and breaching privacy associated with HIEs and EHRs networks (Agazzi, 2020). She underscored the criticality of deploying sophisticated safeguard systems like encryption and access control to ensure the physical integrity of confidential patient information. Furthermore, Dr. Smith appreciated the value of retraining healthcare personnel to adhere to privacy policy regulations and maintain best information security practices.
Ethical Theory and Philosophy
The ethical standpoint of Dr. Smith is woven around a virtue ethics system of reasoning that sees the character features of people, like integrity, compassion and honesty, as the dominant platforms of ethical reasoning. Gertjernalns thinks that ethical conduct is about more than just about doing what is right and wrong by following some rules or guidelines. Still, it is about acquiring virtues within ourselves and the organization (Varkey, 2021). To Dr Smith, the development of an ethical culture is considered the major factor which determines the success of the organization because it is not only that this culture prevents the staff from the unethical decisions, but it also contributes to the formation of the next generations of the organization where ethics is highly regarded and practised. She believes that ethical leadership lies at the base of this culture, meanwhile focusing on the role of the leader to draw a positive framework and propagate it within an organization (Robert et al., 2020). Dr. Smith’s approach underlines that individual human traits and reflective ethical thinking are significant components of the effective resolution of complicated ethical problems that healthcare managers face.
Dr Smith’s ethics caters to virtue ethics, which underlies the prominence of the personality traits such as integrity, compassion, and humility as the pillars of ethical decision-making. The contrast is evident with the rule-based ethical theories that only require the action to be just based on specific rules and conditions (Agazzi, 2020). Virtue ethics puts more emphasis on the development of virtues, which emerges as the wisdom of how humanity should act in any given situation (Agazzi, 2020). Dr Smith opines that developing a culture in which ethics is accorded considerable attention should be of great concern to all the members of the organization because it not only prevents the organization from practising unethical behaviours but will also be responsible for ensuring that future ethical conduct by employees is encouraged (Agazzi, 2020). She stresses the fact that ethical leadership is the very crux of this culture and strategic decision-making, and she unveils that it is the person in the higher position who takes the lead and demonstrates the values by setting an excellent example and stresses ethics in the organization (Agazzi, 2020). The style in which Dr. Smith’s expression of the factors is an indication that people’s characters, among many other factors, have a critical function in ensuring that ethical problems facing healthcare managers are effectively handled.
Ethical Challenge Related to Patient Health Information
Dr. Smith told me about a major ethical issue she encountered when she had to break her patient’s trust because of a violation of unauthorized access to electronic records (Agazzi, 2020). By this even, the question regarding how to safeguard a patient’s privacy and how robust their electronic health records should be is raised (Varkey, 2021). A discipline course of action by Dr. Smith having as a result in the one responsible party getting punished sent a strong message that such cyber-attacks at VERA’s accounts would not be tolerated. She also prioritized strengthening the training for procedures about privacy issues so that all staff will know the essence of the patient’s secrecy and will be able for it (Robert et al., 2020). This incident surely re-emphasized how essential effective privacy policies alongside constant training to be implemented are, as they help minimize these kinds of lapses in the future and maintain patients’ trust to the healthcare system.
Role of Managers and Staff in Protecting Patient Health Information
As for the Dr. Smith, he stressed the fact that HIPAA protection is a mutual concern among the officers and staff, what clearly shows their moral values which lay on the creation of a culture of compliance in the organization. She effectively conveyed that both managers and staff are required to be thoroughly aware of the established policies and procedures on privacy so that patient information is accessed and used only for legitimate reasons and insinuantly (Agazzi, 2020). As accountability and ethical obligations are imperative parts of the medical field, Dr. Smith emphasized on it throughout the seminar and reinforced that patient confidentiality must be emphasized in health care professional’s ongoing education and training. In addition, she also highlighted the fact that internal communication avenues should be kept open to discuss any security issues that may emerge (Varkey, 2021). This allows for quick solutions to be found before they cause any major damage. He contends that the ethics and moral values should permeate the healthcare organization from both the management side and the staff’s and act as the foundation upon which trust and accountability are built as a way of upholding patient privacy and information confidentiality.
Organizational Support or Undermining of Ethical Issues
The Mercy General Hospital offers a well-balanced adherence to the ethical principles with the help of diagnostics policies and subsequently formed compliance units. Dr. Smith identified such steps as an integral part to be able to guarantee harassment policy compliance. The external market has a variety of uncertainties (Agazzi, 2020). They may include financial strains, regulatory changes and so forth. Nonetheless Dr. Smith maintains that Mercy General Hospital stays true to its ethical principles even as it conducts its business she underscored the significance of putting high emphasis on transparency and impeccability in all the company’s practices particularly when it comes to challenging situations (Agazzi, 2020). The hospital’s proactive stance regarding the prospective ethical concerns is implicitly in Dr. Smith’s recognition and it manifests the distinction of the hospital in setting up the culture of integrity and ethical responsibility within the ranks of both staff and leadership.
Additional Questions
Impact of Technological Advancements on Ethical Considerations:
How do the fairly new emerging technologies, such as the AI and telemedicine, its ethical idea in the healthcare management, mainly for the patient question of privacy?
Addressing Health Disparities through Ethical Leadership
What strategies can healthcare administrators use to minimize cognitive bias and promote the rational decision making process?
Balancing Patient Autonomy with Beneficence and No maleficence:
What solutions healthcare organizations might take into consideration in the context of ethical difficulties that appear to be the result of clashing principles in such decisions as treatment of patients?
Reflection on Course Learning
These courses, in a way, take a pledge and expose to the darker sides of healthcare management by highlighting the enormous influence that having an ethical leadership and a conducive organizational environment is towards shaping healthcare landscape. While planning this course, I have learned the basic importance of personal moral integrity in ethical reasoning. And this concept is irrefutably the core message of my interview with Dr. Smith, the CEO of the world-known health care system, Mercy General Hospital. The invincible emphasis and value system of doctor smith of integrity and humanism laid in me a moral compass – a symbol of the virtues that should occupy the minds of any healthcare professional. Her discussions were like green dawn to me, as they revealed the closely related features of self-awareness and moral integrity in healthcare.
The involvement of ethical matter in healthcare management has heightened my perspective, as I am now equipped with more sophisticated level of understanding the underlying ethical issues in healthcare business. Through topics like patient confidentiality and data security, as well as the hard choices concerning when to choose the patient’s autonomy and at other times when beneficence should prevail, this course has opened for me the Pandora’s Box of ethical decision making in the healthcare sector. In addition, the semester has shown that the ethical awareness and responsibility culture develop is a necessity within healthcare organizations and that this is where the professor’s views come into alignment. While the course material and interview work with Dr. Smith had an inspiring effect on me I am now excited to dive deeper in topics such as healthcare disparities and ethical decision-making models. Apart from ensuring an improvement of my practice, my advanced knowledge of these professional areas will extend to contributing meaningfully to the ongoing discourse on ethical questions in healthcare management.
The class was a challenging contemplative trip that exposed the ethical complexity behind decision making in healthcare management. It has according to me a magnanimous meaning that has got me to understand the multifaceted complex of these numerous dimensions including patient confidentiality , data security and decisions which are delicate balances between self-autonomy, beneficence and no maleficence This detailed comprehension has demonstrated the relevance of ethical decisions in healthcare, overall, it can be argued that, it is much vital for any healthcare staff to have this thorough understanding of ethical principles and ability for reflection. During the process, I have equipped myself with a full range of the skills from the course materials and discussions that definitely prepare me to deal with ethical issues in utter confidence and the integrity. The experience was transforming for me as it taught me how to make informed decisions that conform to the highest standards of ethical conduct, thus ensuring that patient’s wellbeing be the core customer of every healthcare activity.
Furthermore, that class has made me recognize the vital capacity that organization culture will contributes to the ethical conducts in healthcare institutions. Through this internship, I have learned that creating an ethical awareness and responsibility culture within the healthcare sector is one of the biggest gaps in promoting ethical behaviour among healthcare professionals. This means putting into operation as the main components of the system a rich set of rules and guidelines and also developing a culture and environment where ethical considerations will be part of the day to day decisions. The course has developed me with the skills and knowledge to join in putting a culture in the healthcare organisations that are led by the core ethic values which are used to determine the level of ethical conduct in those organisations. As I look in these revelations, the zeal to keep up with ethical concerns in health system management is kindled, with particular give to having a good culture in the health organization and having institutions of governance promote ethical decision making all over the health system.
Going forward I will also get packed into the health care disparities and ethical management frameworks where I believe a deeper understanding will take my skills in ethical issues in health care management to their next stage. My area of focus will be looking into how healthcare organisations can be action-oriented to ensure the fairness of care access and practices that will promote health equity which resonates with the concern as this has range of implications that affects patient health and healthcare delivery. In addition, I am interested in studying diverse ethical decision-making models consequently grasping the extent to which they are integrated into the practical healthcare settings.
Conclusion
The interview with Dr. Smith provided me with a chance to contemplate ethical leadership in healthcare management, which offered pithy guidelines to be used in making right decisions. Smith among other things advised this workforce to constitutionally work ethics principles within the organizational policies’ framework to serve as a guide or framework for ethical behaviour. She further outlined how having an ethical conscious culture at the healthcare facilities is a vital component in promoting ethical awareness where the workers are more catalytic, responsive and accountable. Through her wisdom, Dr. Smith mastered how professional medical leaders can realistically view and solve numerous ethics problems health care system has by considering ethical matters when contemplating decisions. The retrospection of my experience with patients and services prompted me to reaffirm about the role that continuous learning and practice with ethical principles play in healthcare management. It clearly points out the fact that healthcare leaders needs to stay informed of the ethical dilemmas and practice good moral reasoning. Therefore, healthcare leaders are empowered to produce a workplace where ethical decision-making is promoted as the principle that governs all aspects ranging from planning to patient care. After all, the talk with Dr. Smith became a remarkable lesson about the undisputed significance of ethical leadership in health care administration and the continuous effort that who is going to be need to maintain the high ethical standards in the fast changing healthcare environment.
References
Agazzi, E. (2020). A systemic approach to bioethics. Bioethics Update, 6(1), 1-6.
Robert, R., Kentish-Barnes, N., Boyer, A., Laurent, A., Azoulay, E., & Reignier, J. (2020). Ethical dilemmas due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Annals of intensive care, 10, 1-9.
Shea, M. (2020, July). Principlism’s balancing act: why the principles of biomedical ethics need a theory of the good. In The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine (Vol. 45, No. 4-5, pp. 441-470). US: Oxford University Press.
Stoeklé, H. C., Charlier, P., Mamzer-Bruneel, M. F., Hervé, C., & Vogt, G. (2020). Systemic modelling in bioethics. The New Bioethics, 26(3), 197-209.
Varkey, B. (2021). Principles of clinical ethics and their application to practice. Medical Principles and Practice, 30(1), 17-28.
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