Can Morality Exist in Healthcare Management?

Can Morality Exist in

Health Care Management?

Kelsey French

MNO 3375

M-4

12/4/12

The Ethical Considerations of a Hospital Administrator

The Ethical Issues of Hospital Administrators

In every business, upper management has the critical role of making decisions for the company. However, what happens when these business managers are making decisions that effect people's health and survival. While the area of Medical ethics has always been a popular topic including extensive discussions of cloning, human stem cells and organ donations, the area of ethics in healthcare management is sparsely discussed. However, these management decisions made in the arena of hospital care are filled with ethical questions that have enormous impact on patients, staff and the served community. Hospital administrators face ethical questions with every managerial issue from allocating funds to departments, deciding what clinical services to offer, and how to assure a high quality of services.

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Ethical Theory and Moral Practice

The Ethical Slut

Trying to balance good patient care, while maintaining a successful business are elements that frequently result in placing ones ethical and moral principals into question.

The ethical community has long ignored this particular area of ethics due to the logic that decisions made by medical management are unlikely to harm patients, unlike mistake made by direct medical staff.� However, ethical decisions made by hospital management create an environment and the pre-condition for hospital staff to integrate ethical practices into their daily work that directly affect patients.

In Healthcare management, there are three main areas of ethical concern: the responsibility of health care institutions for their patients, organizational issues within the hospital, and the community role of health care providers. First, hospitals have a responsibility to their patients to get them the best care, give continuity of healthcare as well as create systems for doctors to give patients various possible...