Ethical and Legal Duties of Health Care Administrators
Breaches of law and ethics can occur in all areas of health care. When this happens at higher levels of an organization the breach can have a particularly negative impact, because health care leaders set the tone for an entire organization. In this Discussion you will assess how administrators should address legal and ethical challenges in a selected case study, and describe the role administrators can and should play in ensuring that an organization adheres to sound ethical standards.
- Identify the scenario you selected in the first line of your posting.
- Summarize the key ethical as well as legal issues in this case.
- Which elements of the ACHE code of ethics would help you, as an administrator involved in this case, determine the right course of action to take? Explain why you think so.
- Address one of the following:
- If you are posting on "Appearance May Not Be Reality," what would you do if you were in organization's ethics comitee?
- If you are posting on "Corporate Coverup," what would you do if the state licensing agency had just appointed you as receiver of the nursing home, taking over from the prior management with the goal of improving care and keeping the home open?
- In general, what is the role of administrators in preventing and addressing this kind of problem? In what ways can and should an administrator operationalize ethical and legal standards in an organization?