Managerial Ethics in Healthcare: A New Perspective

The ethical behavior of a healthcare organization is the expression of its moral core. This book shows how the integrity and values of professional healthcare administrators contribute to defining and implementing the organization’s moral core. Through conceptual and practical tools—including 30 cases—this book provides a new perspective that recognizes that every decision you make and every activity you undertake have the potential to compromise or enhance the moral core of your healthcare organization. Decisions with ethical implications are described and explored through the experiences of thought leaders, scholars, and healthcare executives.

The book demonstrates how personal integrity and values affect decision making, including:

• Understanding an organization’s moral core and how it is expressed in the organization’s culture and in operations and decisions at all levels
• Using concepts, resources, and tools that prepare you to sustain and enhance the moral core of the healthcare organization you manage
• Assessing the ethical and legal frameworks currently relied on by healthcare organizations to preserve this moral core
• Acknowledging why personal value systems are important and how they are developed by healthcare administrators
• Exploring the idea of organizational culture and ethical climate and examining what role they have in formulating and maintaining the moral core
• Learning how to recognize and manage moral distress, which develops when personal values conflict with the culture of the organization

Application of the American College of Healthcare Executives competency assessment tool provides a unique learning experience and relates content to the specific elements of this tool.

About the Editors

Gary L. Filerman, PhD, is recognized as one of the most influential architects of the profession of health services administration. He has been a consultant or program evaluator to more than 135 governments, colleges, and universities in 39 countries. Dr. Filerman is the currently president of the Atlas Health Foundation. He has served as interim chairman and professor of health policy and administration at the George Washington University, chairman and professor of health services administration and of international health at Georgetown University, and was the first CEO of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA). He earned his bachelor’s degree, master of health administration, master of arts, and PhD at the University of Minnesota.

Ann E. Mills is cofounder of IP Advantage, LLC. The company, founded with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, provides easily accessible legal information for students and professionals working in healthcare-related fields. She previously served as an assistant professor at the University of Virginia’s Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities and codirector of its program in policy and ethics in healthcare systems.

Paul M. Schyve, MD, is senior advisor, healthcare improvement at The Joint Commission, where he was senior vice president from 1989 until 2011. Prior to joining The Joint Commission, Dr. Schyve was the clinical director of the State of Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, a system of 22 hospitals and residential facilities.