Professionalism and Ethics

Examples of the 3 Healthcare Ethics Domains

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:59:24 GMT

Clinical Ethics - Example: End of life decision making
Research Ethics - Examply: Consent to participate in reserach study
Organizational/business ethics: Example: DNR policy, hospital policies and procedures

Professionalism and Ethics

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:00:44 GMT

This is one of the most important aspects of healthcare and often the most overlooked area. It is truly important for this aspect to be integrated into the facility at every level.

Ethics and finances

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:58:05 GMT

My team provides rehabilitation ser vices. One of the challenges we oftgen deal with is having clinicians charge fully for the services we provide. The clear position of the organization is that our goal is to charge accurately for our services--neither getting paid more than we're entitled to, nor certainly not less. Therapists often underbill seemingly because of fears of being "unethical" or committing "fraud" despite education, reassurance and access to support. Would be interested in how others have approached this challenge.

futility/ end of life care

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:46:33 GMT

It is well known that over 70% of healthcare dollars are spent during the last 30 days of a patient's life in an acute care hospital. Clinicians must be Realistic when providing care, while balancing: -patient autonomy+patient comfort..... without fear of Litigation. Hospital ethics committees are essential in assisting clinicians when making difficult decisions reguarding Providing VS withholding care.

Administrative participation in Ethics Committees?

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:47:24 GMT

I have been a member of our Regional Ethics Committee for the past 6 years in a multi-hospital system. From our readings and from my experience, ethics and ethics committee participation is a very important aspect of operations, however, historically, we have had very limited participation from our senior leadership. Is this relatively common?

Question #10 on the ethics review

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:45:06 GMT

10. The purpose of a "Living Will" is:

A. Establish Laws that define when life support measures are futile.

B. Allow persons unable to communicate with caregivers to express their wishes about the extent of treatment they wish to have applied.

C. Allow a person to take their own life if there is no hope for a productive life after a long term illness.

D. Allow a person to define the distribution of material wealth after die

The Answer provided is "A", I beleive "B" is a more accurate answer. What do you think?

Conflict of Interest

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:40:18 GMT

If a physician get numerous formal complaints while practicing at the bedside and then transfers to a hospital where his wife is the administrator and takes the position of VP of Medial Affairs, in your opinion, would that be a conflict of interest for the wife? Would she be able to effectively address formal complaints generated by her husband's behavior. How would you suggest those complaints be handled?

Professionalism and Non-Competition CLause

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:15:56 GMT

1) Can a non-competition clause be inserted into an employment contract for mid-level professionals? (reference: p.214 supplemental reading, "Human Resources in Healthcare")

2) Absent a non-competition clause contractually, where does a mid-level professional "cross the line" if changing jobs in the same market?

Ethical Choices of Others

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:38:02 GMT

One of the things I dealt with, which was very difficult, was a position I held at the very start of my career ,where those at the senior management level were making choices and decisions that then filtered down "through the ranks" to us managers to implement that I believed to be unethical. I think this sort of a situation is especially hard on early careerists who may be new to the healthcare administration field and be told to be quiet or that it is no big deal. With a culture of sweeping those actions under the carpet it takes a strong person to walk away. Anyone else have experiences like this?

Ethical Decision Making Tools

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:07:50 GMT

As healthcare leaders continue to make difficult decisions about down-sizing and cost savings, having a solid understanding of healthcare ethics and having access to tools to assist in the decision making process is critical. Ascension Health makes publically available such tools for ethical decision making: http://www.ascensionhealth.org/index.php?option=com_blank&view=blank&Itemid=176