Healthcare Ethics, also known as Medical Ethics, refers to the application of certain core principles for making appropriate medical and healthcare decisions. This is a multidisciplinary approach which helps to view complex medical issues and give recommendations for taking further course of action.
One of the biggest challenges faced in healthcare is maintaining the increasingly tenuous relationship amongst the primary stakeholders-patients, payers and care providers. Reduced trust amongst the stakeholders impacts the nature of interactions and communications which results in a breakdown. Consumer-driven healthcare calls for increased participation of patients for making care decisions. For this, they need access to transparent and adequate information on costs and quality of care for making ethical decisions while choosing the best options.
Healthcare Ethics Principles
- Autonomy - Autonomy pertains to the patient’s right to retain control over his or her body. Ultimately, the patients must have their final say on their decisions and these choices must be made independently in their best interest and accordance with their personal beliefs and values.
- Beneficence - This ethical principle emphasizes the need for all healthcare providers to do everything possible for benefitting the patient in every care episode. The treatment and procedures must be recommended for taking the best clinical decisions. Therefore, medical practitioners must equip themselves with the right skill and knowledge and be aware of the latest practices for dispensing personalized care.
- Non-Maleficence - Non-Maleficence implies ‘to do no harm’. This principle is meant to be the ultimate objective of every medical practitioner. It implies that providers must genuinely consider whether the impact of the decisions they take can harm society at large even if it is beneficial for the concerned patient.
- Justice – This principle implies that there should be an element of fairness in all the decisions taken for ensuring the equitable distribution of clinical resources. It also ensures that medical practitioners safeguard rules and regulations applicable when choices are made.
Implementation of Ethics
- Identifying the core values of the healthcare organization (hospital) - Ethical programs will be more effective when the focus is given on the delivery of value-based rather than merely rendering fees-based or compliance services. The hospital HR Management must ensure that the entire hospital staff is involved in the process by taking sufficient initiatives for the same.
- Securing a commitment from the hospital top management - For making the ethics program successful, it is important to have the complete support of the hospital top management. The senior hospital management must also actively participate in the hospital staff training and make ethics an active element of their presentations. They must also align their behaviour with the hospital’s standards and policies.
- Engaging the hospital’s board of directors - An ethics board committee may be constituted to ensure ethics is a regular component of the discussion agenda. Special training can be given to the directors to facilitate them in executing their ethical responsibilities confidentially.
- Developing an ethical code - Comprehensive ethical code aligned with the hospital’s values and healthcare regulations applicable must be developed. These codes must fully address the complete range of ethical dilemmas that the hospital staff is likely to encounter and must also be updated periodically to tackle new challenges.
- Building ethics into the hospital’s mission and vision statement - By doing this, both the management and staff understand that ethical values and standards are an integral part of the hospital’s operations and are not simply add-ons.
- Integrating Ethics into All Aspects of the Hospital’s Communication -It is crucial to leverage the existing hospital infrastructure to reinstate that ethics is an integral component of all its operations and decisions. So, it must be included in all forms of communication including orientation programs, training, meetings, patient information brochures and the hospital’s branding and marketing initiatives.
Healthcare Consulting Firms can help hospitals and other healthcare facilities to seamless integrate ethics into their day-to-day functioning for delivering uninterrupted value-based care and building long-term and reliable patient engagements.
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