Let It Pour

Introduction

Each year, close to 100,000 hospital deaths is caused by medical errors. Faith Community Hospital is facing the problems or the medial errors issues associated with failing to follow organizational processes, concerns dealing with ethics and poor communication systems.

Background

Faith Community Hospital is a spiritual medical provider whose mission is to promote health and well-being to the people in the communities in which they serve through a comprehensive continuum of services provided in collaboration with insurance companies, regulators and others who share the same vision. Faith Foundation is the governing body of the Hospital. The Faith Foundation is made up of the board of directors, doctors and other hospital staff. The major problems are not with the Faith Foundation but with the hospital.

There are many causes, influences and issues relating to the problem that Faith Community is experiencing. Every organization has an organizational process or a set of policies and procedures to assist employees with the operations of the business. The incident where staff members did not follow Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) directives even though they were in place proves that the staff is not following the organizational processes.

Another issue relating to the organizational process is the relationships or collaborations with insurance companies and other regulations agencies. Faith Community has no control over how and when the hospital gets paid. Premium costs have increased from $217 to $240 per patient per day. It appears that the lack of control over collaborations is aiding to the breakdown of the organizational processes which could eventually lead to medical errors.

Issues' relating to ethics is another factor relating to the problem of medical errors. It is the goal of the hospital to provide adequate health services to its patients. It appears that the doctors and other medical staff are picking and choosing when to act ethical. The situation where pharmacists filled uninsured prescriptions by accepting payment in installments is an issue of weather this is the proper ethical thing to do. Questions to be asked about this particular situation would be; what is the relationship between the pharmacists and the patient? What is the pharmacists' motive behind his or her action? And in what way does this benefit the organization as a whole. Another ethical issue is that two of the hospital counselors treated some clients pro bono. The same questions could be asked here. What is the motive? And how does it affect the hospital?

In this type of industry, it would be very difficult to do the proper thing relating to ethics. The situation with Child Protective services threatening to file charges against the hospital because the hospital allegedly did not provide proper service or no service at all for that matter also adds to the fuel of not acting ethical.

Communication systems is the last facet to the medical errors problem. Due to the lack of communication, the patient population has decreased and cost have increased. Communication with insurance companies and other collaborates are taking a toll on the hospital. The hospital doesn't know when or even how much they will be paid. They've also question themselves as to their ability of operating efficiently.

Alternatives

There are many alternatives that could be used as solutions to the medical errors problem. The first alternative is to do nothing. If the Faith Foundation choose to do nothing, these same problems may keep occurring while creating new problems.

The next alternative could be to create a checks and balances when it comes to the organizational process, issues relating to ethics and communication or the lack there of. To rectify the situation where staff members are not following organizational processes, the company should implement a disciplinary plan. If a doctor or another staff member decides to take it upon themselves to do