Wilson Owen manages administrative operations for a major medical center in Houston, Texas. In response to the rising cost of health care, he is always looking for ways to save money. In fact, part of his annual compensation is a 5% bonus for all documented continuing cost savings he generates during the year. Wilson recently began discussions with a firm in India to provide transcription services for the medical center. Doctors would dictate their notes from patient exams, and their recording would be transferred to the Indian company via the Internet. There, clerks would transcribe the notes into medical records system. The system is expected to save the medical center $500,000 each year.
When Wilson presented the idea to the practice advisory committee, questions arose regarding privacy issues. Many of the committee members did not believe that transferring patient’s medical records over the Internet was a prudent business practice, much less sending them all the way to India and back. They were also concerned that the transcriptionists might not capture some of the subtleties of the English language. After heated discussions, one committee member suggested that Wilson was pursuing the arrangement solely for the $25,000 bonus. The meeting ended with the committee voting against outsourcing the records.
Wilson is torn about what to do. He believes he is obligated to provide the most cost-efficient operations possible, control operating costs, and generate higher returns for investors. But, he also needs to respect the advisory committee’s point of view, even though its role is only an advisory one – its actions are not binding.
Wilson must consider the fact that outsourcing work to other countries via Internet involves multiple concerns such as data privacy, data theft and also poor quality of work. He must go by the advisory committee's views and also understand the criticality of the issue as it is in the health care industry and any data that does not meet the norms will not serve well for the organization. Although Wilson must act in the best interests of the shareholders in order to reduce costs and have higher profits but the concern of the patients is higher than that of the shareholders. In this case he must follow the advisory committee's direction as the interest of the patients is of prime importance. Wilson can find direction in the integrity standards of the IMA's Statement of Ethical Professional Practices which states that the members must resolve all conflicts of interest and must refrain from carrying out any activity that would cause prejudice to carry out duties ethically. This is case where Wilson is trying to mitigate the interests of the shareholders, his personal interest and that of the advisory committee. He must resort to the decision just to gain a bonus.
Wilson Owen manages administrative operations for a major medical center in Houston, Texas. In response to...
Wilson Owen manages administrative operations for a major medical center in Houston, Texas. In response to the rising cost of health care, he is always looking for ways to save money. In fact, part of his annual compensation is a 5% bonus for all documented continuing cost savings he generates during the year. Wilson recently began discussions with a firm in India to provide transcription services for the medical center. Doctors would dictate their notes from patient exams, and their...