Administrative Ethics Paper Essay

Administration ethics are becoming a very important subject. Administrative individuals are faced with a variety of ethical issues such as confidentiality. This paper will discuss confidentiality and patient privacy and its impact on the population that it affects most, arguments or facts that support a proposed solution, the ethical and legal issues in reference to confidentiality. It will also address the managerial responsibilities related to administrative ethical issues as well as any proposed solutions.

The administration in any organization has responsibilities to self, to the organization, the clientele served and the employees who provide the services at the organization, so it is important to be aware of ethical issues because they are embedded in the everyday activities (The American Nurses Association, Inc, 2013).

Confidentiality Confidential information includes facts that are secret, private or intimate that should not be shared unless it is approved.

When dealing confidentiality in this day in time, information systems are becoming high tech and more effective within the health care field as well as an increased involvement of third parties who share the decision process have created some problems in reference to patient confidentiality and the ability to release private information to the appropriate individuals.

Confidentiality has a major impact on the administration due to the fact that jobs are at stake when a patient’s privacy has been violated.

The population that is affected the most by this is everyone within the administration, meaning the physician as well as the employees. The physician may not disclose any medical information revealed by a patient or discovered by a physician in connection with the treatment of the patient (American Medical Association, 1995-2013). This is important because when patients feel they can trust their physician, he or she can have a better chance being diagnosed appropriately and treated effectively.

Without trust, the physician will receive partial information and it will make it difficult to treat patient. Arguments/Facts In reference to confidentiality, something has to be done to incorporate a more efficient way of distributing patient information. Some arguments include requiring ethical awareness, knowledge and decision-making skills as well as having several discussions about different ways to improve, retrospective analysis and ethical education (American Nurses Association, Inc 2013).

By doing this the administration will have a more profound idea of what it takes to make sure that they can come up with innovative ways to answer difficult questions in regards to confidentiality. A big question that is often asked when dealing with confidentiality is under what circumstances is confidential information to be released. The fact still remains that any patient information that is released has to be approved or consented by the patient. Policies and regulations should be in place so that the employees comprehend what is appropriate and what is not.

Ethical and Legal Issues The administration of any organization is possibly faced with many ethical and legal issues. For example, an employee works for a facility and he is in the office alone and a business calls in for some information regarding communicable diseases. The employee has not received any direct orders or any information from his manager to release information as such to anyone, but the company insists that the information will not be shared.

The employee has to make an ethical and legal decision because he realizes that he is releasing patient information without consent and he could possibly lose his job if the information is released. The ethical and legal issues reported for confidentiality include whether or not administration should legitimately violate the confidentiality of an individual, for example, if it is to protect a vulnerable patient, or send confidential information to a third party for a more accurate diagnosis.

Some legal issues reported include whether or not to release information to a third party in reference to a communicable disease to attempt to improve or cure diseases (NCBI, 1994). There are many rules and regulations that each state requires and they have to be followed. Managerial Responsibilities Managers have an important duty in understanding and realizing how ethical issues affect’s his or her staff. Managers need to be aware of the many different issues that arise as well as the best possible solutions to solve them.

For example, if an employee works for a facility that begins to be more concerned with costs instead of quality and he or she has strong beliefs that it is very important to give the best service possible, this would be difficult for the employee, especially if the mission includes quality is of importance. This could call for high turnover, unacceptable working conditions and unlicensed personnel. With these types of issues, managers need to be there for their staff, so that they can direct them in the proper direction in reference to how to handle certain situations.

Managers could take classes as well as employees so that everyone was aware of ethical issues and had a decision making process as how to approach them as they occurred. In this case, the employee should have discussed her feelings about the change to her manager and allowed him or her to make a decision on how to improve or change the decision to focus on cost in lieu of quality. Proposed Solutions Improving confidentiality is definitely an ongoing process due to many different challenges such as there are many different ways to make the process better.

Gathering information and facts in reference to confidentiality, promoting training classes as well as keeping up with the rules and regulations in the appropriate states are all ways to help improve the issues with patient confidentiality. Another proposed solution is understanding conflict and reasons to maintain confidentiality. Issues are bound to arise in reference to confidential information and how it was handled; therefore the managers as well as the staff need to have extensive training in regards to confidentiality and how important it is to maintain it.

. Conclusion In the conclusion, administration issues in regards to ethics are becoming a very important subject. Working to understand confidentiality and its impact on the population that it affects most, arguments or facts that support a proposed solution, the ethical and legal issues in reference to confidentiality as well as addressing the managerial responsibilities related to administrative ethical issues and any proposed solutions is a very productive and effective way to begin maintain confidentiality.