Ethical Standards in Healthcare Administration

This article discusses the importance of ethical standards in healthcare administration, including privacy, equity, and patient autonomy. It summarizes findings from three studies and emphasizes the need for healthcare administrators to make effective ethical decisions to promote safe and equal healthcare practices.

Running Head: HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION i
Healthcare Administration
Name:
Institutional Affiliations

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Privacy in Healthcare Practice...............................................................................................................3
Inequity in Healthcare...........................................................................................................................4
Patient Autonomy.................................................................................................................................6
Comparisons of the findings of the articles...........................................................................................7
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................8
References.............................................................................................................................................9
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Running Head: HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATION 1
Introduction
For healthcare administrators to provide good quality patient healthcare, they will
have to utilize all the available resources. The healthcare administrators must understand the
balance that exist between the clinical roles and the administrative roles in healthcare and the
skills that are needed to direct and organize programs that will lead to the attainment of
balance between the two roles (Kash et al., 2014). The administrators also need to have the
current knowledge to provide excellent solutions to the problems that are encountered every
day in the healthcare setting (Harris, 2015). It is the function of the administrators to adopt
standards, principles, and regulations in the healthcare. That will enhance safe and quality
healthcare practice. The healthcare administration standards mainly involve ethical standards
that include equity, privacy, and autonomy (Flite & Harman, 2013). The problems and
challenges that may arise are usually solved using the administrative skills and efficient
decision making that is based on the use of the professional code of ethics. This article will be
describing equity, privacy and autonomy as ethical standards of the healthcare
administration. The information in this paper has been obtained from three articles through
summarisation of critical information.
Privacy in Healthcare Practice
A study on privacy was conducted in the North-eastern USA mainly to explore it
according to the healthcare practice, role in the everyday work and its importance in the
healthcare (Anthony & Stablein, 2016). The study proved that the awareness of the patients
and the practice of professional ethics are very important. This is in addition to the proper use
of technologies and the compliance with the legal regulations. It was found that there is a
difference across the health professionals whereby some information concerning the patients
is protected as the professional ethics dictates while other healthcare professionals thought

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that privacy of the patient information is in the centre of the professional work (Anthony &
Stablein, 2016). Privacy can be viewed inappropriately as one of the administrative standards
in settings of healthcare rather than it is a professional obligation that should be kept and
respected.
There are wide ranges of differences of the definition of privacy among healthcare
professionals, and the differences are mainly due to the differences in the career
developments, nature of organizations and the professional orientations. The differences also
can be contributed by the resistance of some healthcare professionals to the changes of new
technologies and the hospital policies while other healthcare professionals consider the
healthcare information systems as a challenge when controlling the information of the patient
(Anthony & Stablein, 2016). The professionals can change their practices to adapt to the new
technology and policies that have been introduced in the healthcare settings. The suggestions
of change in the healthcare practice clarify on how the privacy of patients can be kept. It is
therefore recommended that this aspect of privacy should be explored more in the future
studies.
Power, authority, and status of the healthcare professionals that includes even the
administrators can play a critical role in the management of the privacy of the patients. This,
therefore, will lead to ethical questions on who is allowed to access patient information and
the reason as to why they are obtaining the information about the patient (Chalmers & Muir,
2003). It should be noted that effective supervision, protection, accountability, resourceful
administration of the healthcare setting and even assessment of performance are very
essential in healthcare service delivery. The future recommendation has been made to explore
on how privacy and control of information can change between the healthcare professional
groups (Chalmers & Muir, 2003).
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Privacy is therefore very a critical professional ethical standard in the healthcare.
Privacy is a fundamental standard for the healthcare administrator and even the professionals
that need to adapt to it (Marini, 2015). Due to the advancement of technology, it has been
established that there the need to control information and protection of privacy of patients is
very important in healthcare setting (Langheinrich, 2001). Awareness of healthcare
professions on the importance of maintaining confidentiality is not enough for adequate
protection of the information about patients.
Inequity in Healthcare
The importance of this study is to explore how unexplained healthcare inequalities are
treated from an ethical perspective and a proper method for the analysis of the healthcare
inequality (Asada et al., 2015). For observation of demographic features, social economic and
health behaviours in the healthcare inequities, Health Utilities Index is usually used. The
measurements of the healthcare inequalities were mainly determined using two estimated and
well-standardized methods that include; unexplained inequality are accepted ethically and are
very unfair and unacceptable healthcare inequalities (Asada et al., 2015).
Three proposals concerning the inequality treatment and healthcare inequalities have
been made so that the leaders and healthcare administrators can use to ensure equal
deliverance of healthcare services. The recommendations include an explanation of the
relationships of health, health determinants and the failure to understand them. The second is
based on the stopping of gap resolutions for the passing of the ethical questions to the people
using the information of the healthcare inequality (Eyal et al., 2013). The third proposal uses
the available resources to address the inequality in healthcare basing argument from correct
judgments and analysis.
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From research, it has been established that education, gender, and age are ethically not
an acceptable cause of inequality but smoking, weight, and the physical status are considered
acceptable causes of the healthcare inequalities (Flite &Harman, 2013). It therefore, goes
without a say that, the unexplained inequities in healthcare cannot be accepted ethically. The
research has stressed the importance of implementing powerful laws and policies that will, in
turn, promote health and help curb the health inequalities and inequities. Through well
understanding of patients’ rights and code of ethics, it can help the administrators improve in
ethical decision making of inequality in healthcare and hence delivering equal and safe
services to all of them (Pinto et al., 2012). Further analysis of inequality in healthcare is
recommended in order to come up with proper plans, efficient solutions and having a good
understanding of ethical decisions.
To improve responsibility, accountability, and equity in healthcare, ethical awareness
concerning the set healthcare standards are normally used. The importance of healthcare
equity includes supporting the development of actual and apparent action plans that are to be
implemented (Pinto et al., 2012). It is therefore very necessary that the healthcare
administrators should have set objectives and have proposed approaches to achieving equity
and hence resulting in the promotion of quality services to patients.
Patient Autonomy
The primary aim of this study to establish the importance of patients autonomy
mainly as an ethical principle, challenges of autonomy and the insinuation of social
relationship basing it on patients autonomy. The results of the study show that patients’
autonomy can be affected by different healthcare practices (Entwistle et al., 2010). It is the
function of the healthcare professionals to make sure that there is proper communication of
the healthcare professionals to support autonomy and decisions of the patients (Entwistle et
al., 2010). Clear communication and even understanding of patients’ problems enhance good
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patient-healthcare services. Social relationship is a very important factor in improving
patients’ autonomy. The administrators therefore should ensure that the healthcare
professionals understand and recognize the importance of positively interacting with the
patients.
Efforts to improve the provision of better healthcare services and even an excellent
experience of the patient mainly depend on the right communications with patients and
understanding their rights (Entwistle et al., 2010). The use of effective communication skills
will lead to the promotion of patients’ safety, health and improving the quality of healthcare
services. This study recommends that the patients should be given choices and options for
their medical intervention. Factors that affect autonomy include illness, social norm, and
culture (Wolf et al., 2013). The above undermines self-evaluation of the patient hence
interfering with their autonomy.
Comparisons of the findings of the articles
Privacy, healthcare equity, and autonomy are essential principles that the healthcare
administrators should take with a lot of seriousness. On first articles, it indicates that privacy
in practice dictates that compliance with regulations, being aware of the rights of the patients
and the code of ethics is very essential. Differences in privacy perspective among healthcare
professionals exist. It has been noted that some professionals protect information about
patients as they consider it a professional ethical principle while other professionals most
think patient information is the central entity in their work (Anthony & Stablein, 2016).
Healthcare professions must change to adapt to the new technologies and the policies in the
healthcare to be able to control patient information.
The second article proves that inequality in healthcare is not ethically accepted.
Implementation of laws and policies is important when there is need to promote the health of
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the patient's and curb the inequalities and equities in healthcare (Flite &Harman, 2013).
Understanding of the patients’ rights and code of ethics by the healthcare administrators can
help improve on decision making when it comes to health inequalities and hence leading to
delivering of equal and better healthcare services.
The third finding supports patients’ autonomy, and it shows the range of healthcare
practices that affect the patient’s self-evaluation and autonomy. The administrator's role, in
this case, is to ensure that there is effective communication between the health providers and
patients and hence guaranteeing support of patients’ autonomy. Social relationship is
regarded as an important factor to patients’ autonomy (Entwistle et al., 2010). The work of
the healthcare administrators is to ensure that the healthcare professionals understand the
importance of positive interactions with patients.
From the three studies, it can be established that there are similarities in the
importance of a professional code of ethics and even the patients’ rights. When the healthcare
administrators are aware of the patients’ rights, it can help them make appropriate ethical
decisions (Flite & Harman, 2013). Findings above show that patients should always receive
equal and safe services. Promotion of the health of the patients is also a very important factor
towards offering the quality healthcare services. Finally, the decisions of the patients should
be respected, and their information carefully controlled. The work of healthcare
administrators will be well supported if they work according to the professional code of
ethics (Zakari et al, 2010). It is the work of healthcare administrators to encourage effective
between the healthcare providers with their patients. Healthcare administrators should be
trained on effective us of new healthcare technologies.
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Conclusion
It is the function of the healthcare administrators to adopt regulations and standards in
healthcare with the aim of promoting equal and safe healthcare practices. The standards that
the administrators adapt include equity, privacy, and autonomy. The three ethical has been
discussed above. From the findings, it has been demonstrated that professional code of ethics
and patients’ rights is very important (Flite & Harman, 2013). The administrators through the
applications of administrative skills can solve any problems or challenges that occur in a
healthcare setting. When the patients’ right is known, it can help the administrators to make
proper and effective ethical decisions.
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References
Anthony, D. L., & Stablein, T. (2016). Privacy in practice: professional discourse about
information control in health care. Journal of health organization and management,
30(2), 207-226.
Asada, Y., Hurley, J., Norheim, O. F., & Johri, M. (2015). Unexplained health inequality–is it
unfair? International journal for equity in health, 14(1), 11.
Chalmers, J., & Muir, R. (2003). Patient privacy and confidentiality: The debate goes on; the
issues are complex, but a consensus is emerging. BMJ: British Medical Journal,
326(7392), 725.
Eyal, N., Hurst, S. A., Norheim, O. F., & Wikler, D. (Eds.). (2013). Inequalities in health:
concepts, measures, and ethics. Oxford University Press.
Flite, C. A., & Harman, L. B. (2013). Code of ethics: principles of ethical leadership.
Perspectives in Health Information Management/AHIMA, American Health
Information Management Association, 10(winter).
Harris, M. D. (2005). Handbook of home health care administration. Jones & Bartlett
Learning.
Kash, B. A., Spaulding, A., Johnson, C. E., & Gamm, L. (2014). Success factors for strategic
change initiatives: A qualitative study of healthcare administrators' perspectives.
Journal of Healthcare Management, 59(1), 65-81.
Langheinrich, M. (2001, September). Privacy by design—principles of privacy-aware
ubiquitous systems. In International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (pp. 273-
291). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Marini, M. (2015). Privacy in Archive Health Records. Health Science Journal, 9(3).
Pinto, A. D., Manson, H., Pauly, B., Thanos, J., Parks, A., & Cox, A. (2012). Equity in public
health standards: a qualitative document analysis of policies from two Canadian
provinces. International journal for equity in health, 11(1), 28.
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Wolf, S. M., Annas, G. J., & Elias, S. (2013). Patient autonomy and incidental findings in
clinical genomics. Science, 340(6136), 1049-1050.
Zakari, N. M., Al Khamis, N. I., & Hamadi, H. Y. (2010). Conflict and professionalism:
perceptions among nurses in Saudi Arabia. International nursing review, 57(3), 297-
304.
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