Ethical Decision Making in Healthcare Industry

Ethical decision making is a critical function in decision making and refers to a branch of philosophy that relate to an understanding of morality. Healthcare ethics guides the professional and personal behavior of different stakeholders of the healthcare industry. The selection, evaluation, and application of appropriate quantitative or analytical business model in healthcare are influenced by ethical practices since a proper model should conform to the guidelines of “good or bad.” The ethics considerations can be understood from the Cristian perspective which sometimes conflicts with the business perspective. Management plays a significant role in choosing, applying and evaluating appropriate business models to ensure effectiveness in business operations. Ethics plays a critical role in defining the effectiveness of a healthcare business model. The purpose of this assignment is to discuss the ethical decision making in the healthcare industry.

Influence of Healthcare Ethical Business Practices

Application of business ethics relates to a combination of moral beliefs that guide management of business organizations in decision making. The ethics define the necessary rules required to attain effectiveness in any business conduct by determining how business activities are carried out (Elwyn et al., 2012). Ethical issues in health care refer to the obligations towards the employees, suppliers, patients and other stakeholders. Business models and ethics conflict when obligations contradict economic or strategic choices. Legal provisions are different from ethical commitments since laws are enforceable while moral beliefs are voluntary and are not coerced. Ethics in healthcare industry follows five essential elements that include openness, confidentiality, trust, integrity, and honesty (Valentine et al., 2011).

During the evaluation of ethical practices, management act as the focal point in the decision-making exercise. Patients should have the assurance that their private information is safe with the medical practitioners. Employees should also have the confidence that their files are not accessible to unauthorized parties. The ethical model should ensure that patients are open to giving all relevant information to help healthcare providers to make informed decisions in healthcare provision. There should exist adequate trust between the patients and the care providers. Besides, healthcare providers should uphold a high degree of integrity and honesty to build patient confidence. Incorporation of ethics in decision making sometimes have a negative economic implication thereby influences the evaluation, selection, and application of business models. Selection of a business model from the ethics perspective is based on personal judgment of good and bad (Carroll, & Buchholtz, 2014).

Sources of Strength for an Analytics Competitor

Analytics competitors carry out activities beyond the spreadsheets and analysis. They employ things that provide them with a better understanding based on available data. The sources of strength in for an analytics competitor entails predictive modeling intended to identify the most profitable clients in the industry (Kwon, Lee, & Shin, 2014). The modeling is based on data regarding the internal and external environments. As a result decision making concentrates on optimizing supply chain that directly affects real-time pricing. As a means of calculating the impact, sophisticated experiments are carried out. A majority of analytics competitors carry out comprehensive investigations in the endeavor to provide the best value to their customers regardless of the risks involved. Having a clear sight, right culture, right people and the right technology provides analytics with competitive strength.

Personal Reflection

My views about quantitative business modeling have been influenced by this study in a significant way. From the business practice perspective, Decision making based on quantifiable statistics is a crucial aspect of business efficiency. However, incorporation of ethics in decision making has a significant influence on business models. In the evaluation of various business models to be adopted in the healthcare industry, subjective considerations should be made to ensure that the chosen models consider the overall benefits to all stakeholders in the industry (Ferrell, & Fraedrich, 2015). Quantitative business modeling is essential but should encompass ethical considerations.

From the Christianity perspective, business models should be based on the greater good of the society with biblical references. Businesses models should, therefore, be accountable for the well-being of the customers. In the healthcare industry, my views are that healthcare providers should ensure health and safety of the patients without much liability. The healthcare bills should be minimal to ensure that all human beings live a comfortable life. It is the objective of the healthcare providers to do the lords work of caring for God’s creation. To show Christ’s love for others entails saving lives no matter the returns.

Conformity, Conflict or Supplement of Personal Views with Article Readings

The findings of this study conform to my opinions of business models. Healthcare providers should ensure customer satisfaction to the highest degree through consideration of the factors related to the clients. However, my beliefs conflict with the findings of the study because I believe that the critical objective of business is to maximize profits. I, therefore, am of a contrary opinion that ethical considerations should not mask the overall goal of business which is to make profits. Ethical provisions that threaten profitability are not worth pursuing. The study also conflicts my views about ethics because I would prefer ethical considerations not to be voluntary and organizations should have them as mandatory requirements.

Conclusion

Ethical business models play a significant role in the day to day decision making in the healthcare sector. In the evaluation, selection, and application of various business models, a close reference to the ethical considerations should be done to ensure that the decisions arrived at consider the welfare of all stakeholders in the industry. The ethical considerations should refer to both the business perspective and biblical reference. Incorporation of ethics in decision making in healthcare industry ensures that management evaluates and applies the best business models that benefit all the stakeholders.

References

Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and Society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.

Elwyn, G., Frosch, D., Thomson, R., Joseph-Williams, N., Lloyd, A., Kinnersley, P., & Edwards, A. (2012). Shared decision making: a model for clinical practice. Journal of general internal medicine, 27(10), 1361-1367.

Ferrell, O. C., & Fraedrich, J. (2015). Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson Education.

Kwon, O., Lee, N., & Shin, B. (2014). Data quality management, data usage experience and acquisition intention of big data analytics. International Journal of Information Management, 34(3), 387-394.

Valentine, S., Godkin, L., Fleischman, G. M., & Kidwell, R. (2011). Corporate ethical values, group creativity, job satisfaction and turnover intention: The impact of work context on work response. Journal of Business Ethics, 98(3), 353-372.