Ethical issues are common in any industry, and this includes Healthcare. These issues require proper implementation of the management principles by the relevant stakeholders to maintain a conducive environment for efficient service delivery. There is also need for sound decision making processes in the identification and development of any ethical issue in healthcare. This write-up delineates some of the most notable ethical issues found in health care.
Privacy and Confidentiality
In the medical field, patient information is highly sensitive and should always be kept as a private matter between the patient and his or her physicians. This is commonly referred to as doctor – patient confidentiality (Sankar et al. 2003). It is the responsibility of managers to assign the duties of safeguarding medical records to the pertinent people. Doctors are ethically bound not to release or share their patients’ information with anyone unless authorized to do so by the law. Management should ensure discipline amongst its personnel to prevent any leakages of patient information. Enhanced privacy and confidentiality strengthen the trust between the personnel in a healthcare facility and their patients.
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This issue was developed after recognizing that patients were fearful and hesitant when opening up to health practitioners about their ailments. It was difficult to diagnose patients due to the insufficient information they provided (Sankar et al. 2003). Lack of trust between medical personnel informed the need to formulate mechanisms for protecting patients’ information. A leakage of such information compromises the patient’s relationships with other people and affects their social lives. The consequences of such leakages may include, among others; rejection, break up of families or suicide by the patient. The issue was developed to create and enhance trust between the patient and medical personnel. Studies and reviews carried out assess the effects of this issue have shown that it has enhanced the trust and relationships between doctors and their patients.
Improved Access to Care
It is the responsibility of all health stakeholders to enhance healthcare accessibility. This is possible if management teams in healthcare facilities lay out proper strategies to facilitate the implementation of reformed health care laws. These rules state that everyone has a right to accessing primary medical care without any hindrance whatsoever. Managers should use their authority of command to ensure that these reforms are implemented in their facility. It is also their duty to ensure that all patients are treated equally with no preference whatsoever. They should be able to monitor, guide and supervise these efforts directly (Andersen et al. 2013). Difficulties in the access of medical care is a critical issue faced by many individuals. This sometimes leads unnecessary loss of life, which created the need for the development of reformed health care laws. With the implementation of these laws, every citizen can access basic medical care. The review of its application showed reduced premature deaths, increased maternal care and improved accessibility to health care. It has also elevated the quality levels of service delivery in health care facilities.
Building and Maintaining a Strong Health Care Workforce
Health care providers should strive to employ enough, skilled and able employees. If the employees are not in a position of sustaining the workload, then service delivery to patients is compromised. Planning is therefore essential to the health providers when it comes to the employment of personnel in their facilities. An adequate number of employees facilitate work division and proper planning within the organization (Dickens, 2010). This ensures proper service delivery to patients and increased work specialization amongst personnel.
Lack of enough employees in healthcare is a problem which has led to poor service delivery to patients. Many patients in the health care centers are sometimes left unattended due to staff shortages. In a healthcare facility facing staff shortages, the available ones are overworked and demotivated in the execution of their duties. The necessity of managers and health providers to increase staff numbers is informed by the above aspects. This has brought about work division and increased employment leading to specialization by personnel, to the specific duties assigned to them. The quality of service delivery in health care units to patients has also improved.
Allocating Limited Medications and Donor Organs
The scarcity of medication and the allocation of limited donor organs are also a major issue in the healthcare industry. The supply and the demand remains an unsolved puzzle to the healthcare practitioners due to the ever increasing need of organs. The scarcity of medication is caused by lack of proper economic incentives to the pharmaceutical industry. The number of patients in need of organs is higher than the number of donors and organs available. Health providers should create order in their facilities so that all patients can be treated equally. Oder creation in health facilities was necessitated by the inequality in organ allocation and preferential treatment of some patients. Allocation of medicine was often in regards to the location and type of health facility in question. This brought about the need for creating order in the organ allocation and drug distribution by manufacturers to health facilities. The implementation of this order has enhanced equity in service delivery in the healthcare
References
Andersen, R. M., Davidson, P. L., & Baumeister, S. E. (2013). Improving access to care. Changing the US health care system: Key issues in health services policy and management, 33-69.
Dickens, B. M. (2010). Ethical issues in health . MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES-Volume VII, 92.
Sankar, P., Mora, S., Merz, J. F., & Jones, N. L. (2003). Patient perspectives of medical confidentiality. Journal of general internal medicine, 18(8), 659-669.
