Question

in which types of health care organizations is it ethical to generate profit?

Answer 1

In For-profit health care organizations it is ethical to generate profit.

For-profit health care organizations-

• For-profit health care organizations, particularly investor-owned multihospital systems, and about the fiduciary role of physicians in a health care system increasingly characterized by commercial and entrepreneurial activities.

• For-profit hospitals, sometimes referred to as alternatively investor-owned hospitals, are investor-owned chains of hospitals.In contrast to the traditional and more common non-profit hospitals, they attempt to garner a profit for their shareholders.

• United StatesIn the United States, the three largest such firms are Hospital Corporation of America, Tenet (formerly NME), and HealthSouth. HealthSouth, as the third-largest U.S. national chain, is also the leading provider of rehabilitation services. For profit Psychiatric Solutions is the largest provider of psychiatric services in the nation.Advocates of such institutions claim they are able to provide better care at lower cost due to higher efficiency. It is also said that, in the free market, hospitals have an incentive to do better due to competition.

• Canada-They have also been criticised by elements of the Canadian medical establishment as providing inferior care at higher cost.

• India-For-profit hospitals in India have recently come under increasing media scrutiny. They spoke about the problems with "corporate hospitals" and senior surgeons being told to sell surgeries to their patients even if they weren't needed. In one instance, a doctor was told he would be sacked if he didn't have enough patients to operate on.

  Ethical ways to earn profit by For-profit health care organizations

• 1. Avoiding conflicts of interest. Doctors and nurses are often prime targets of promotions from pharmaceutical, medical device and equipment manufacturers.Very few hospitals have ethical guidelines to govern the behavior of their purchasing professionals.

  2. Balancing profit with serving patients and providing charity care. Nurses are a scarce resource. So is cash. Healthcare organizations must balance the books to keep their doors open ― 'No margin, no mission', Healthcare organizations need to take a long, hard look at how they make ethical decisions involving their business operations.

  3. Wrestling with equal treatment vs. VIP treatment for donors and other influential people. Elite care for VIP patients such as financial donors, trustees’ family members, and other influential people in the community can take many forms. It may result in shorter waiting times or longer physician consultations, these should be avoided.

  4. Managing pediatric and geriatric patients who may not have decision-making capacity. providers need to determine whether the patient understands his or her medical condition,The patient also should be able to rationalize in selecting one choice over another. If a patient can’t give informed consent to a medical provider, then the responsibility falls to his or her legally authorized representative. That person is supposed to decide based on the patient’s known preferences or best interest.This should be addressed.

  5. Addressing nurses’ moral distress about providing care with minimal benefit. Some nurses tend to patients on life support for years. Caught in the crossfire, nurses may feel they’re hurting people rather than helping people. And it bothers them that others go without care due to lack of funding.This should be addressed.

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