Healthcare Ethical Issues

In addition to ethical issues faced in healthcare organizations, are legal issues. According to Pozgar (2016), laws are enacted to regulate human behavior for the benefit of society. Laws are a basis for conduct in our society and if breached can lead to serious implications. Public policy is the principle of law that holds that no one can do that which tends to be injurious to the public or against the public good (Pozgar, 2016, p. 240). Though not directly involved with patient care, a health services administrator should enhance the overall quality of life and well being of individuals under their organizations care. Following are legislations and acts passed to safeguard the rights of patients and set precedent, a standard, for all subsequent cases.
Any healthcare organization …show more content…
The act of discriminating is stated in the ACHE Code of Ethics and healthcare service administrators are responsible to prevent discriminatory organizational practices. Additionally, The Privacy Act of 1974 was enacted to safeguard individual privacy from the misuse of federal records, to give individuals access to records concerning themselves that are maintained by federal agencies, and to establish a Privacy Protection Safety Commission (Pozgar, 2016, p. 244). This law gave control back to the individual of their personal information. As a healthcare administrator it is important to use individuals personal information for the sole purpose of healthcare services. Another law designed to protect the privacy of patients is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996. HIPAA was designed to protect the privacy, confidentiality, and security of patient information (Pozgar 2016, p. 245). HIPAA protects the privacy of information through all mediums being electronic, paper, or verbal. A healthcare administrator is responsible for training staff of HIPAA and enforcing