Ethical Issues in Healthcare

More than any other industry, issues that deal with patients and their welfare are of utmost importance in the healthcare industry. This is because, people in this industry deal with such situations and circumstances, every day, which have a direct bearing on another person's life. That is why, it is mandatory for all healthcare organizations to have an ethics committee, a written code of ethics, policies or procedures that govern right conduct, so that the interests of all the parties, whether the patient, his family members, the organization itself, caregivers and the community itself, are properly looked into and balanced out.

This was a bit about ethical issues in the health sector pertaining to individual organizations. But what are the ethical issues that are faced by the healthcare industry as a whole? Here is a list of ethical issues facing healthcare, pertaining to both management and medical research, which the industry is currently contemplating.

Healthcare Management Ethics

Exercise confidentiality: One of the most important ethical issues in the medical field is confidentiality - the protection of patient information, which is both private and personal and the conversations between a doctor and a patient. Earlier, patient medical records were accessible to anybody and everybody, this however is no longer the situation. Majority of hospitals these days safeguard the confidentiality of patient information. Also, physicians should be sensitive enough not to reveal their discussions with patients.

Prevent the transmission of diseases: An ethical concern of many healthcare executives, doctors and nurses is to protect themselves from the dangers of acquiring communicable diseases from the patients, especially if the patient history is unavailable for some reason. Although, healthcare professionals do have a right to protect themselves from the various pathogens that might be transmitted by the patients to them, however, at the same time they have to take care not to make the patients uncomfortable by making these protective measures very apparent.

Avoid aggressive marketing practices: While marketing and promoting the services of hospitals, care should be taken that the hospital authorities and marketers maintain certain standards, guidelines and ethics. Marketing, in no way, means aggressively promoting and recommending such services to the patients which they may not even require. So this should be avoided. Profit-making is essential, but is not the be-all and end-all of healthcare marketing and management.

Provide authentic information: To deal with the ethical issues in healthcare marketing, the hospital authorities should make sure that the information they provide through advertising is totally accurate and correct. The advertisements should not be misleading, rather the welfare of patients should be the primary objective in the healthcare industry.

Safeguard patient welfare: Lastly, a healthcare professional should not forget his main motive, i.e., safeguarding and promoting the welfare of patients by being honest with them. Under no circumstances should a healthcare professional discriminate patients on the basis of caste, creed or color, compromise patient care or place his own interests above a patient's welfare.

Ethical Issues in Healthcare Research

The current ethical issues faced by the healthcare industry in medical research, are mostly pertaining to the fact that medical research has now shifted to low-income, developing countries, from the developed countries, where it was earlier carried out. The main reason for the shifting of this medical research to foreign sites is the ease and quickness, not to mention less investment, that is needed to carry out the trials in such countries compared to the richer countries. Also, the ethical regulations and approvals are less strict and hence, easier to get by in these developing countries.

It is also easier to recruit participants for trials in low-income countries as deprived people are more likely to accept such offers by the rich pharmaceutical companies, in exchange for food and money. An ethical issue that the healthcare industry faces is about "informed consent" by the participants, i.e., the participants are informed about the research, drugs and the effects it can have on their bodies, prior to carrying out the trials. Low standards of care, that are taken by the pharmaceutical companies, while conducting research in low-income countries, is an important ethical issue in healthcare research these days.

Ethical issues in the health sector should be dealt with lot of care and concern. Having a written, well-defined code of ethics and training the healthcare professionals to adopt patient welfare as their primary responsibility while making decisions, can help in resolving ethical issues that arise in the healthcare industry.