Top Five Ethical Issues In Health Care

Finally to summarize my learnings from the course HCA 6280, I want to mention the top five ethical issues that are facing the future of health care industry. First, managers are challenged to create a balance between the quality and efficiency. Due to the fact that there is no consistent framework to measure efficiency, this concept has remained vague and needs more literature research. Second, the disparity in access to care is the biggest dilemma of the U.S. health care system.Third, Due to the increase in the number of baby boomers more healthcare professionals are needed than before to provide coordinated care for chronic diseases. Healthcare managers need to focus on recruiting more competent professionals and create strategic planning

The focus of the course was on showing the political economical changes affect the health care policies. President Obama has made considerable changes in the U.S. health care system by expanding the access to care to uninsured individuals. In fact, his principles for a modern health care system are as below: enabling individuals to have the right to choose their health care providers reducing the administrative costs of health care insurance companies and making it more affordable for individuals protecting families from becoming bankrupt after a medical problem planning public plans to change the lifestyle of individuals and encouraging them to follow wellness programs, and shift the focus from disease treatment to preventive

healthcare system. I found these trends very important, because they help the health care managers align the organization with the changing external environment. The first trend is eMedicine which enables patients to be more involved in their own care. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is continuously approving more medical softwares and physicians are becoming more interested to get advantage of this technology. Therefore, it is important for health care organizations to be prepared to adopt eMedicine. Second, the medical apps endanger the privacy of personal and medical information of the patients. For some people easy access to care is more important and on the contrary, for some privacy is the priority. Health care managers need to reassure that the application of eMedicine will not increase the chances of fraud and misuse of the confidential information. Third, high-cost patients like dual-eligible- both enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid- consume most of the health care resources. Also some patients wait till their health problem reaches emergency situations and their visit to to the emergency department is noticeable. Managers should identify these patients and plan a follow-up treatment plan for them. Fourth, information transparency has become more important than before, and those who pay for the medical services want to know about the medical cost and the quality of care. Also