Analyzing Ethical Issues and Impact on Stafford Hospital's Future

This report delves into the ethical issues surrounding Stafford Hospital, focusing on the impact of poor healthcare services, staff shortages, and management failures on the hospital's reputation, public confidence, and medical staff. The analysis highlights the high mortality rates, lack of resources, and inadequate training as key factors contributing to the negative outcomes. The report assesses the impact of these issues, including the loss of public trust, potential legal issues, and the attrition of medical staff. It concludes that the hospital's unethical behavior has severely damaged its reputation and suggests recommendations such as implementing emergency inquiries, recruiting efficient nurses, providing effective training, and promoting work-life balance to address the problems and prevent further deterioration of patient care and staff morale. The report emphasizes the need for immediate action to restore public confidence and ensure the hospital's future viability.

Running head: HEALTH CARE
HEALTH CARE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
The purpose of the report is to analyze the impact of ethical issues of the organization Stafford
hospital on its reputation, public confidence and medical staff to determine whether the
organization should be allowed to continue to operate in future. It has been found that high
mortality rate of the patients resulting from poor healthcare services and lack of appropriate
resources will impose highly negative impact on the reputation of the Stafford’s Hospital and
public confidence. When it comes to the medical staffs, it will result in attrition of the medical
staffs. Finally it has been suggested that recruiting efficient nurse, implementing emergency
enquiry and providing effective training and work life balance to the existing employees possess
the potential to solve the issue.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations............................................................................................................................8
Reference list.................................................................................................................................10

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Case study: Stafford Hospital
Introduction
The term ethics can be defined as the morale principles that govern an individual’s
behavior while conducting an activity (Harriss, MacSween and Atkinson 2017). When it comes
to ethics in business it can be defined as a set of oral rules that is used by the management to
operate the businesses and for making decisions and treating the employees, other stakeholders
as well as consumers.
The Stafford hospital under NHS has evidenced deaths of approximately 1200 patients due
to lack of appropriate amount of healthcare service giver resulting in provision of poor care. It
has been found that lack of staff morale and compassion amongst the staffs, staff shortage as
well as the decision of cutting down 10 million pounds for spending for the improvement of the
organization has led to the situation. Thus it can be clearly understood that the failure of the
hospital pointed out failure of the management and external bodies who are supposed to be
monitoring hospital care. The issue associated with the case of Stafford is that contradiction
between the type of care expected from the hospital and the scenario that has been allowed to
take place at the Stafford hospital over a prolonged period of 2 years.
It can be clearly understood that in the UK healthcare industry, reputation of a healthcare
organization is directly associated with its number of consumers and the profit margin, given the
high completion within the organization of the sector. The aim of this report is to analyze
identify the major impacts of unethical behavior on Stafford Hospital’s reputation, public
confidence and medical staff to determine whether the organization should be allowed to
continue to operate in future.

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Analysis
The chief purpose of the following paragraphs is to analyze the ethical considerations associated
with the case of Stafford hospital. The chief aim of this section is to analyze the impact of the
unethical behavior of the Stafford organization on its reputation, impact of the same on public
confidence as well as medical staffs so that it can be determined that whether the hospital should
be allowed to operate in the following years.
Impact of unethical behavior on Stafford Hospital’s reputation
It can be clearly understood that high mortality rate of the patients resulting from poor healthcare
services and lack of appropriate resources will impose highly negative impact on the reputation
of the Stafford’s Hospital. According to researchers, unethical behavior can result in losing the
credibility, general morale as well as reduction of productivity of the hospital. Considering the
fact that lack of effective healthcare services has resulted in death of 1200 patent within limited
time span of 4 years that is from the year 2005 to 2009, potential healthcare service users has
already started avoiding the services provided by the mentioned organization and consumes the
service of its competitors. Thus lack of effective healthcare service has resulted in decrement in
the competitive advantage of the organization. Considering the fact that the UK healthcare
industry possesses a good number of healthcare organizations that provides the consumers with
effective healthcare services, it is easier for the healthcare service usersto shift their preferences
from one organization to another in case of slightest of dissatisfaction. In case of the Stafford
Hospital, lack of necessary resources like food, drink and medication along inadequately trained
staffs have already resulted in death of a good number of patients. Thus it can be clearly
understood that it has become risky and even fatal for any healthcare users to get admitted in the
mentioned hospital for obtaining healthcare services.

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Along with decrement in the consumer base of the healthcare organization, deterioration of
reputation resulting from unethical behavior, can also take a toll on the organizations revenue.
According to Harriss, MacSween and Atkinson (2017), in this era of high completion between
organizations in the healthcare industry, it had become highly crucial for the organization to
enhance as well as maintain its reputation in order to ensure a steady increment in the revenue.
Thus, decrement of consumer base clearly signifies decrement in revenue of the Stafford
organization.
Considering the fact that the mortality rate of the patients had increased over time, it is was
highly crucial for the management of the healthcare home to look into the matter , identify the
chief causes behind the death of the patients ad sole the issue so that further mishappenings can
be avoided. Considering the fact that no such major steps has been taken over the past 4 years by
the mentioned organization, the organization should not be allowed to operate by the government
until the quality of healthcare service gets increased. No emergency scrutiny of the personnel
responsible for the trust needs to be identified criticized and if necessary should be suspended.
Until effective strategies are implanted in order to enhance the healthcare quality of the
organization, suspension of the operation of the healthcare organization should be performed.
Impact of unethical behavior on public confidence
Unethical behavior of an organization results in deterioration of the confidence of the public
which eventually impose highly negative impact on its consumer base as well as revenue.
According to Cherry and Jacob (2016), the government has announced plans for offering the
healthcare service users and the public satisfactory access to as well as control over personal data
while building up public confidence in the importance of secure data for providing better
individual care as well as treatment along with supporting the research and conduct effective

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planning across the healthcare system. However, shortage of staffs, proper training of the
healthcare service users and lack of financial resources has not only deteriorated the service
provided to the public by the mentioned healthcare organization but has also resulted in lack of
confidence of the public on the Stafford organization. The healthcare service users are aware of
the poor quality of care provided to the organizations. The high mortality rate resulting from
poor care has reduced the trust of the consumers over the organization. According to Ocak,
Köseoglu and Yildiz (2017), the healthcare industry, unlike other business industries, deals with
the life of consumers. Even a slightest miscommunication or inefficient service can result in fatal
scenarios. Lack of trust of the consumers eventually results in decrement in the consumer base
which can be directly evidenced from the decrement in the yearly revenue of the organization.
Thus poor healthcare service not only results in lack of consumer satisfaction but also reduces
the trust of the healthcare organization over the service providers. Prolonged provision of poor
service not only results in complete loss of consumer trust but also result in legal law suits. Legal
law suit along with taking a toll over the reputation of the organization can result in massive loos
of revenue an even closure of the business.
Considering the fact that the mortality rate of Stafford hospital was high for a prolonged period,
the local government should introduce public enquiry. Till enough evidence against the
organization has been accumulated, the organization should not be allowed to operate in the UK
healthcare industry. This is because, until effective measure is taken to improve the health care
service of the organization, keeping the organization operating may result in more deaths of the
healthcare service users.
Impact of unethical behavior on medical staff

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From the case study of the Stafford organization, it can be clearly understood that the employees
of the organization lacks proper training that has resulted in lack of their skill to address the
needs of the healthcare service users. According to researchers, since nurses plays a major role in
the provision of care to the patient, providing effective training can improve the basic skills and
make the service providers more robust towards stresses and strains that is faced by them. It has
been found that a good number of nurses were given tasks that are beyond their capabilities.
Lack of capability and knowledge has result in lack of effective care which in turn has resulted in
deterioration of the condition of the patients. Not only this effective training and education
session can also enhance the compassion of the healthcare service users towards patients along
with employee morale. Lack of the same has also resulted in deterioration of the service provided
to the patients.
Pozgar (2019) have pointed out that shortage of staffs in an organization denotes overtime of the
existing workers which is directly associated with lack of work life balance, high stress and
lower job satisfaction and eventually lack of compassion towards work. Considering the fact that
a good number of the employees working for the organization are made to work overtime
without extra pay, unethical behaviors on staffs will result in job dissatisfaction and attrition of
experienced staffs. Considering the fact that organization ins already suffering from lack
healthcare service providers, further attrition of employees will result in further deterioration of
the service. Not only this, if the organization do not invest financial resources to train employees
in order to enhancetheir capability, the heath care service users will not be able to
developappropriate care to the healthcare service users. Thus, if the situation is not changed in an
emergency basis, the mortality rate of the patients in Stafford University may get higher near
future. In order to deal with the situation, the organization should be given a limited time period

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to recover its condition and then if the situation does not change, it should be suspended to
operate for a temporary period of time.
Conclusion
The Stafford hospital under NHS has evidenced deaths of approximately 1200 patients
due to lack of appropriate amount of healthcare service giver resulting in provision of poor care.
Thus it can be clearly understood that it has become risky and even fatal for any healthcare users
to get admitted in the mentioned hospital for obtaining healthcare services. high mortality rate of
the patients resulting from poor healthcare services and lack of appropriate resources will impose
highly negative impact on the reputation of the Stafford’s Hospital. Unethical behavior of an
organization results in deterioration of the confidence of the public which eventually impose
highly negative impact on its consumer base as well as revenue. Lack of the skills of employees
to address the skills of the service users has resulted in deterioration of their efficiency job
satisfaction and employee attrition. In order to deal with the situation, the organization should be
suspended to operate for a temporary period of time.
Recommendations
In order to prevent the condition from further deterioration, it is highly crucial for the mentioned
organization to implement the following recommendations on an emergency basis
1. Implementation of emergency inquiry and rapid action
In order to prevent temporary restriction of operation, the management of the Stafford hospital
should conduct a n emergency inquiry in order to find out the chief factors as well the reluctance
of personnel responsible for the condition of the organization (Moon and Nolan 2019). The

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enquiry should be conducted in an emergency basis so that the loopholes can be detected.
Inefficient personnel should be suspended and emergency recruitment of proficient and
experienced candidate in the job profile should be recruited.
2. Ensuring effective recruitment in order to deal with the shortage of employees and
enhance its investment cost for quality enhancement
Considering the fact that shortage of staff is one of the chief issues that is resulting in decrement
of the quality service quality, the organization should recruit efficient healthcare service users. In
order to attract experienced and skilled employees, the management can offer remuneration
slightly higher than its competitors in order to gain competitive advantage (Congress 2017).
3. Incorporating training and education session for the employees
In order to enhance the capabilities of the employees working for the organization, effective on
job training should be given on an emergency basis. This will not only enhance their capabilities
but will also act as an intrinsic motivation (Pandya-Wood, Barron and Elliott 2017). Also, for
retaining employees and ensuring their work-life balance, reasonable leaves along with
incentives for overtime work should be provided.

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Reference list
Cherry, B. and Jacob, S.R., 2016. Contemporary nursing: Issues, trends, & management.
Elsevier Health Sciences.
Congress, E.P., 2017. What social workers should know about ethics: Understanding and
resolving practice dilemmas. Social work ethics, 1(1), pp.1909-35.
Harriss, D.J., MacSween, A. and Atkinson, G., 2017. Standards for ethics in sport and exercise
science research: 2018 update. International journal of sports medicine, 38(14), pp.1126-1131.
Harriss, D.J., MacSween, A. and Atkinson, G., 2017. Standards for ethics in sport and exercise
science research: 2018 update. International journal of sports medicine, 38(14), pp.1126-1131.
Moon, B.L. and Nolan, E.G., 2019. Ethical issues in art therapy. Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Ocak, S., Köseoglu, M.A. and Yildiz, M., 2017. Business ethics research in healthcare
management: A systematic review. International Journal of Healthcare Management, pp.1-7.
Pandya-Wood, R., Barron, D.S. and Elliott, J., 2017. A framework for public involvement at the
design stage of NHS health and social care research: time to develop ethically conscious
standards. Research Involvement and Engagement, 3(1), p.6.
Pozgar, G.D., 2019. Legal and ethical issues for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Learning.