Organizational ethics are values and principles that a business uses in its operation. Hospitals are faced with a lot of ethical challenges in the course of their operation and all members of staff are required to act ethically. The sensitive business environment in which hospitals operate provide a challenge in making sure that fair treatment of patients and staff is upheld (Chambliss, 1996, pp 37). In this regard, hospitals should prepare and abide by an organizational ethical plan to ensure standardization of practices. All practices should thus be guided by the procedures and practices specified in the ethical plan. In this paper, the focus is on the financial operations, patient care and human resource ethics in a hospital.

The price of treatment should be fair and equal to all the patients and should be based on the type and level of treatment administered. The price of all treatment should thus be specified for the patients even before it is administered. Further, patients who have insurance covers should not be accorded preferential treatment by virtue of their status. In the same respect, patients who cannot afford a health insurance cover should be ethically treated with no form of bias. The practitioners and staff in the hospital should not be guided by self interest in making the decisions that regard the patients and the operations of the hospital. The staff should therefore exercise independence at all costs (Aragon, 2010, pp 41). For instance, the drugs administered to patients should be chosen based on quality and suitability for the treatment and not based on the incentive given by the supplier. The prices of healthcare products and services should also not be inflated for the same reason and should reflect the normal rates. In addition, the prices of a specific treatment should be applied equally to all the patients regardless of their form of payment. Therefore, patients with no medical insurance covers should be regarded with respect and not despised. Another aspect of financial ethics is the payment of all statutory dues including taxes to the government. The management should therefore not bribe state employees to evade taxation and license renewal.

With regard to patient care, the patients should always be given the right to decide the medical operations that they should undergo. The health practitioners must therefore not assume the right to choose a medical procedure for a patient. The patient should be given a choice of the operations and then given a chance to either accept it or deny it (Woogara, 2001, pp 238). The decision to perform any medical procedure should therefore come from the patient or their beneficiary. Moreover, patients with reservation for certain procedures should be excused from the same and options given for the same patient (Green, 2005, pp 73). Some of the reservations may arise from religious and/or cultural beliefs which must always be respected. For instance, a doctor should not impose an abortion to a patient without their consent even if the condition is a threat to their life or health. The decision must be from the patient with recommendation from the doctor. In addition, the patients should be treated equally regardless of their religion, tribe, race or ethnicity. The equity in this regard includes pricing and medical treatment.

The employees of a hospital are the main capital and should therefore be treated ethically and in fairness. The members of staff should not be discriminated and mistreated based on their race, ethnicity, gender or religion. Moreover, the management should listen to employees concerns with a view to solving them and not despising them. The workers’ pay should not be exploitative and should be commensurate with the type of work that they are doing. Workers in the same job group should be given the same job description and their salaries should be at par. Psychological issues affecting the employees should also be looked into in order to help improve the lives of the employees. For instance, they should be helped to overcome such problems as drug abuse and alcohol dependency (Alston, 2012, pp 107).

The type of duties and responsibilities that do not require the physical presence of the employees, such as the clerks should not be forced to come to work daily. In these instances, the management should make arrangements for the employees to work from home provided they still deliver the same work output expected of them. In addition, employees should be allowed to digitize the medical records so that they can remotely access the files even when working from their homes. The employees should also not be forced to work overtime with no corresponding wages (Becke, 2013, pp 96).

In addition to the ethical considerations involving the internal aspects of the hospital, other ethical considerations binding the hospital with external factors should be organized. The organizational ethical plan should therefore cater for the hospital’s social responsibility. In this regard, the hospital should have activities that cater for the community after every specified period to make the community they operate in a better place.  Moreover, the hospital should ensure the health and safety of the community in which it operates. This can be done by ensuring that the environment is healthy for the residents in the community. For instance, the hospital should not dump its waste in the open to avoid endangering the lives of the community members.

References

Alston, C.M., 2012. Employee Assistance Programs. Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society.

Aragon, G.A., 2010. Elements of a Positive Financial Ethics. Financial Ethics, 32–45.

Becke, G., 2013. Human-Resources Mindfulness. Sustainability and Human Resource Management CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, 83–103.

CHAMBLISS, D. F. (1996). Beyond caring: hospitals, nurses, and the social organization of ethics. Chicago [u.a.], Univ. of Chicago Press.

Green, D., 2005. Quality patient care in hospitals. Print.

Woogara, J., 2001. Human Rights and Patients’ Privacy in UK Hospitals. nurs ethics Nursing Ethics, 234–246.

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