Ramsay Health Care: Ethics and Governance Report Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of ethics and governance within Ramsay Health Care. It begins with an executive summary highlighting the importance of ethical standards in business operations and their impact on company performance. The report explores Ramsay Health Care's adherence to ethical guidelines and governance principles, emphasizing the company's commitment to high-quality healthcare services. It examines the composition and responsibilities of the board of directors, including non-executive and executive directors, and how they ensure effective corporate governance. The report also details the board orientation process for new directors, including the identification of potential board members, special meetings, and evaluation of the orientation's effectiveness. Furthermore, it discusses the application of the legitimacy theory and its role in shaping the company's communication strategies. The report concludes by assessing the company's overall ethical outlook and its approach to stakeholder engagement, offering insights valuable for understanding corporate governance and ethical practices in the healthcare industry.

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Executive summary
The report is based on the issue of ethics and governance in an organization and how this has
been achieved by the company. The scope of the report covers how the company conducts its
operations while observing the required standards of ethics. The reason for this report is to make
the reader understand well the importance of ethics and governance and its effect on the
business.th outcome of the report is that it explains about the company compliance with the
levels of ethics and governance and how best to further improve the same in order to ensure the
company attains its best.( Baillie, 2017)
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to give an insight as to how the issue of ethics and governance has
been applied to by Ramsay health care and how this has impacted on its business.in coming up
with this report, an extensive research has been done to cover all aspects of ethics in order to
provide a solid conclusion on the company’s adherence to the rule of ethics and governance. The
use of several theories related to ethics and governance has been very important as it has enabled
one to fully understand the concept and its use in the organization. This has led to the detailed
analysis of the company in line with the incorporation of ethics and how this has resulted or
affected the organization operations and overall productivity.
Summary of the company
Ramsay health care is a worldwide heath company that offers high quality services to its
customers together with delivering excellent care of its patient. The company was established in
Sydney Australia and has provided quality health care for over 50 years. The company has
branches across eleven counties making it one of the largest health care companies in the world.
Ramsay proud itself in dealing with a wide range of services which range from the basic health

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care to complex surgeries and not forgetting rehabilitation and mental health care.( Boatright,
2017)
The company has a staff of over 75000 and caters for the need of over 8 million patients across
the various facilities that it owns. The company is very well known for its high quality of health
care and also the high levels of management that it possesses. This is one of the factors that has
contributed significantly to the success of the company.it ensures that the hospital is well taken
care of at all times and that the needs of the patients are catered for adequately. According to the
hospital policy, the needs of the patient are their first priority and therefore they strive to ensure
that this is adhered to at all times. As the name suggest ,the company is in the medical industry
and its core business is to ensure that the people get the right medical services which will in turn
promote the general welfare of the community and the nation as a whole. The company focuses
on being an employee choice whereby the employees would always want to work at the place.
They do this by ensuring that they offer the best terms of engagement with the employees and
also cater for their needs.( Bowman, & Burkhart, 2017). This is something that motivates them
and thus they stick with the company an provide excellent services that the company is well
known for. Ramsay company also has a philosophy that it flows in its operations. The
philosophy named people caring for people forms the fundamental principle sin which the health
care company operates.
Summary of corporate governance
The board of Ramsay health care company is composed of a majority of non-executive directors
and minority of executive directors. There are seven non-executive directors and two executive
directors. All of the seven non-executive directors are classified as independent directors while
the other two are non-independent. This also includes the chairman and the deputy chairman

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together with directors who possess a wide range of expertise and experience suitable for
managing the health care facility. The board is charged with the mandate of recruiting its
candidates under the guidance of the company constitution.it is a requirement that none of the
directors serve for more than three years without offering himself for reelection. The board
reserves the independence of the directors based on the information that they have provided to
the board. The chairperson of the board is a non-independent director
The chairman report manly focuses on the quality of services that the company has offered to is
clients and how this has contributed to the success of the company.( Floridi, 2018). The report
highlighted on the use of data and registry information which has helped in the process of
identifying clinical variations and thus reducing them. This innovation has enabled the company
to set new standards in the care of the patient and also in driving leading industry outcome. The
report also elaborates on the strong financial position of the company and the need for the
company to expand even more. The company has therefore increased its focus on the acquisition
opportunities and areas of growth relating to adjacent businesses. The company has the
leadership and market positions to enable the process of acquisition of new opportunities much
simpler. The chairman also took the opportunity to welcome the new director to the board and
wished him well in his duties.
The chief executive officer report highlighted the good overall performance that the company
achieved for the just concluded year. The report commended the entire workforce for the
exemplary performance as they ensured that they maintain the company core principle of
providing high quality service. The CEO elaborated on the company performance despite the
several challenges such as industry headwinds and tariff adjustment that were witnessed. It also
stressed that the positive growth experienced was due to the cost management strategies that

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were used by the company in ensuring that they completely cut down on unnecessary
expenditure. Also, the company focused on building sustainable organization through the
provision of a high level of doctor patient experience which will ensure that there is long term
sustainability of the firm. (García-Sánchez, Rodríguez-Domínguez, & Frías-Aceituno, 2015).
The directors and the executive are remunerated based on the company’s executive remuneration
policy. The committee members review and make recommendations to the board regarding the
remuneration of these members and any amendments that may have come up. The executives are
assessed based on the performance of each against the performance objective that is in place and
relevant remuneration benefits arrived at. The proposed remuneration of these executives
includes equity awards, incentive awards, and performance and service contracts. The chief
executive officer recommendations are also considered when determining the remuneration of
the other senior executives of the company.
Board orientation
Board orientation is the process in which the new directors of the company are helped to
contribute adequately to the requirements of the board as soon as they begin their tenure. The
process looks for ways and means in which the new directors are able to adjust faster to the new
environment and be able to deliver on their mandate.( Hilgartner, Prainsack, & Hurlbut,
2017).This is an important process as it assist them t get adequate knowledge of the company at a
much faster rate and thus be able to contribute fully as per their mandate. The aim of this process
is to ensure that the new directors are aware of their role and responsibilities, goals and
challenges facing the company, be aware of the main stakeholders of the company and know
how the meetings of the board are conducted

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Ramsay health care ensures that the undertake board orientation for the new members joining
them as directors. The first step of this process is the identification of a potential board member.(
Khan,2017).The company analyzes and assesses the list of potential people to be employed as
board members. This is done to analyze their qualities in relation to the requirements of the
company and the best suitable candidate is picked. The company ensures that they analyze the
skills and expertise of the candidate in order to be aware of how he or she will be valuable to the
company. Also the y will look at the current challenges that they are facing and thus come up
with someone who they believe can deal firmly with it or any other that may arise in future.
Some of the requirements are communicated to the potential candidates during the recruitment
process. The board of Ramsay is itself mandated to carry out these interviews and is done in
accordance with the regulations and policies of the company. (Menzel, 2016).
The next step that follows is the holding of a special meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to
ensure that the new director is familiarized with the working area that he will be operating in.
The health care company strives to ensure that its new employees are adequately oriented in
order for them to get down to work immediately and thus contribute to the development of the
company. A shorter orientation process will enable them to start delivering on their mandate and
thus there is minimal interruption of the operations of the company and thus they will still be
effective in their provision of quality services. The orientation process normally include meeting
with the chairman and the CEO, provision of a board manual to the new director, organizing of a
special workshop session and touring of the offices and facilities. This assist the new director in
understanding how the company operates and thus be able to fit it properly.( National Academies
of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017).

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The board chair of Ramsay health care is actively involved in the orientation process. He does
this by signing invitation letters to the potential board members and contacting and welcoming
them personally after they have been confirmed. The CEO is also an important player of the
company in regards to the orientation process. He ensures that the new director is well aware of
the financial management, budgeting process, staff roles and the programs of the company.
Although the company needs one to quickly get into the system, they are careful not to pump all
of the new information to the new director as this may disorient the board member hindering
efficiency.
Lastly, the company carries out an evaluation of the whole orientation process in order to
determine its effectiveness. The company deals with health mattes and thus they would want to
ensure that the orientation process that they undertake will result in a person who is well
experienced and has vast knowledge of the needs of the health care system. This will ensure that
he contributes towards policies that are of benefit to the company in terms of health and the
provision of quality services to the patients. The board analyzes on all areas of importance that
guide the orientation process in order to determine which of them worked quite well or those that
failed and need to be improved. This is important as it will assist the company greatly when they
will be carrying out their next orientation process. The board chair ensures that he follows up
with the new directors in order to get crucial information on what went wrong or right. This is
done through a self-evaluation given to the new directors for them to give out information on
how they viewed the whole orientation process. (Ransome, & Sampford, 2016).
Legitimacy theory and interpretation of communication

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The theory of legitimacy can be defined as a mechanism that helps the organization in
developing voluntary environmental and social disclosures in order for the company to be able to
fulfill the social mandate and the recognition of their objectives as an organization. Legitimacy
theory is very important as it gives the company the legitimate feeling as it deals with these
issues. In terms of communication, legitimacy is key and thus Ramsay health care has adopted
this theory to enable it better fulfill its mandate. The company understands the need to be open
with the kind of information that it passes to various people as it may be useful in sustaining the
business. The company has put in place a continuous disclosure policy which ensures that the
shareholders are constantly and well informed of all matters that affect the company.
Shareholders are also allowed aces to the company information at all times in order to ensure
there is transparency within the organization.( Şahin,2018). The board has also adopted a formal
communication policy that will guide on the provision of information to the shareholders. The
company is able to provide the relevant kind of information to the general public as it has a
social responsibility to do in accordance with the corporate social responsibility of the company
that was drafted. This explains the relationship that s there between the company and the society
at a large and therefore, the company is morally obligated to divulge some aspect of information
to them. This ensures that the organization experiences long term sustainability due to the good
relations that it has with the social environment. The company encourages t shareholders to
always attend the AGM in order for them to be aware of how the company is doing and also to
acquire first-hand information on the operations of the company. The company through the
legitimacy theory offers its financial reports on the investor center on its website. The investors
are able to log in and view how the company is performing financially. The shareholders are also

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able to send and receive mails and this is done at a faster rate which enables them to know of any
information that they require urgently.( Strech, & Mertz,2016).
Therefore, the communication of the company is open and transparent which enhances the
legitimacy of the whole company. The full disclosure of relevant information ensures that none
of the people interested with the information feels any doubts about the company in regards to
the communication and this gives it the reliability it deserves.
Conclusion
The issue of ethics and governance is very critical an one that the company should ensure that
they observe to the latter. Ramsay healthcare company has strived greatly to ensure that the right
form of governance and ethics is apple to its business. They have ensured that they conform to
the set out standards even though there is still some room for improvement. We can clearly see
that they have in place a systematic orientation policy that follows all the required guidelines for
the appointment of new directors. This displays the good governable that they have .Also, the
company has formulated a communication disclosure policy that enables it to disseminate
information to the relevant shareholders in an open and just manner.in doing so, they have
ensured that they have observed the highest form of ethics and governance by not withholding
crucial information that may affect the decisions of the shareholders in regards to the company
operations. (Soltani, & Maupetit, 2015).
Furthermore, the company ensures that they provide only the best quality of health care to its
patients. The company is driven by the need to serve the people as opposed to other organization
that are mainly money oriented. This is evidenced by the philosophy that they follow. They are
therefore ethical and conform to the best practices of governance in the discharge of their duties.

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Also, the company ensures that it takes care of its employees by looking well, after their needs
and requirements. The employees are given better packages that ensure that they are not
distracted at all and thus all their energy is invested in service delivery in the facility. They are
therefore able to provide the best quality of service and this enables the company to meet is
objectives and missions at ease. Thus the company is able to integrate the issue of ethics and
governance when it comes to dealing with the employees.( Weaver,& Clark,2015).

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