Question

What are seven ethical issues that deal with Quality Control and Improvement and discuss them? Also, what is the effect of each one on the short and long term performance of a company?

Answer must be lengthy!! Answer the question correctly!! Do not plagiarize!!

Answer 1

According to the principles of healthcare ethics of open university, the seven ethical issues that deal with quality improvement include truthfulness, confidentiality, informed consent, autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice. Quality control and improvement in healthcare is an evidence-based array of methods including problem-solving in a practical manner to bring a system change.
In a healthcare context, truthfulness is revealing the truth about the patient disease in a transparent manner. If a patient is found out to be suffering from cancer as a result of lab test results, then the truth must be intimated to the patient in a professional manner. This truthfulness increases the reliability of the hospital in the short term and overall quality in the long term.
Confidentiality is maintaining the secret about a patient’s disease. The hospital must not reveal the patient’s health information to family members without getting consent from the patient. The disease information about the patient must be kept a secret. This will develop a sense of trust in the mind of the patient about the hospital in the short term and make the patient a loyal customer in the long term. Similarly, the employees of the hospital must keep information about the hospital in a confidential manner. This forms a professional secret and helps in attaining competitive advantage in the long term.
Autonomy in healthcare is allowing the patient to take their own decision pertaining to the diagnosis of the disease. The clinical staff or healthcare provider must respect the patient’s rights in this regard. Compliance to regulations is the short term impact. This will create goodwill for the hospital in the long term.
Informed consent in the healthcare context is about getting the approval of the patient about the procedure to diagnose the disease. The patient must be fully informed about the diagnosis process, consequences and get their assent. This will enhance transparency in operations of the healthcare unit in the short term and prevent any damage to the healthcare unit if there is any problem in the diagnosis or complications after diagnosis in the long term.
Beneficence is ‘doing good’ to the patient. Consider the case of a patient affected by a communicable disease. In such cases, the patient has to be isolated for treatment as a measure of ‘doing good’ to the community on a large scale against the will of the patient. This has good short term impacts in finding an effective cure for the communicable disease and in the long term, the healthcare unit earns the goodwill of the community is not making the disease spread.
Nonmaleficence is ‘doing no harm’ to the patient by not abandoning them in need of healthcare service. This has a positive social impact for the healthcare unit in the short term and good reputation and goodwill among the public and community about the hospital in the long term.
Justice in healthcare is about providing fair, impartial and equal treatment to all with no discriminations on any basis. Everyone must be treated in the same manner and have access to the same things to improve their health. This justice aspect of the healthcare unit creates public trust in the short term and goodwill in the long term.