An Introduction to Healthcare Organizational Ethics

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, USA, Jun 15, 2000 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 265 pages
This is a lucid, readable discussion of ethical questions in health care as they arise on the business or organizational level: an effort to spell out an ethical perspective for healthcare organizations. It will be of use to students in health services management programs, health care professionals, healthcare administrators, and members of healthcare ethics committees. Hall begins with the ethical analysis of decision-making in the management of healthcare organizations and then addresses some of the questions of organizational ethics through an analysis of corporate social responsibility in for-profit and not-for-profit organizations and of the problem of uncompensated care. Later chapters take up patient development, community relations, diversity, employee relations, governmental relations, regulatory compliance and medical records. The author's analysis focuses on healthcare institutions as business organizations with many of the problems faced by corporate management in other fields but with the difference that health care holds a special place among human needs and has traditionally been viewed from an altruistic perspective. He gives special attention to the new standards on organizational ethics promulgated by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and includes many case studies not only to illustrate the main points but also to direct the reader's attention to peripheral aspects that can complicate theses issues.
 

Contents

Medical Ethics and Organizational Ethics
3
1 Ethical Perspectives
9
2 Charity Care and Social Responsibility
41
3 Advertising and Marketing
59
4 Managed Care
77
5 Diversity
97
6 Program Development
119
7 Medical Records
133
11 Clinical Ethics Medical Research and Compliance Programs
206
12 The Development of an Organizational Ethics Program
223
Ethical Conduct for Health Care Institutions
236
A Patients Bill of Rights
241
Code of Ethics
245
Appendix 4 Model Organizational Code of Conduct
250
Community Accountability with Changes in the Ownership or Control of Hospitals or Health Systems
252
Sample Components of an Organization Ethics Framework
255

8 Patient Services
146
9 Community Media and Government Relations
166
10 Employee Relations
181

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About the author (2000)

Robert T. Hall is at West Virginia State College.