Healthcare involves identifying, treating and preventing an illness or an injury. Health care helps in promoting the welfare of people in the society. Short term healthcare addresses unexpected illnesses or injuries while long term healthcare covers chronic diseases such as cancer. Health care facilities seek to provide appropriate patient care, and prevent any harm to members of the society (Martin, 2013, p.26). Ethical issues vary with the form of healthcare required at a given period, and the illness being addressed.
The intensity of an ailment determines who receives a short term healthcare or a long term one. Practitioners may decide to offer long term healthcare to a patient suffering from an acute disease such as cancer. The long term healthcare is considered essential to ease the patient’s pain. A patient may not have the decision making capability on what healthcare to receive, and the medical specialists should advise on the appropriate measures (Philip, Gold, Brand, Douglass, Miller & Sundararajan, 2012, p.816). This advice is considered an ethical concern since some specialists may give biased information or may discourage a patient to pursue further treatment in case of a chronic illness.
There are various ethical issues that determine the micro-allocation of care within the healthcare facility. The number of patients with the same illness visiting a facility may determine the urgency of healthcare provision. A healthcare facility may provide a special care to people because of an increased mortality rate in a community due to a given illness. Some healthcare facilities introduce free services to people in case of an outbreak of a disease in the region. This helps in preventing further spreading of the epidemic to other areas.
Chronic diseases require huge financial capability, and some patients may not afford the expensive services. Some healthcare facilities provide such care services freely or at reduced prices to enable every patient to access medical care. The decision to allocate various care services affects the working environment in healthcare facilities. For example, managers of private health facilities may deny medical services to patients that are unable to pay their institutions’ price.
A healthcare facility will require more staff members and equipment in the long term. This is due to an increase in the number of patients in the facility. The profitability level may increase due to the rise in demand for healthcare. It is essential to consider the ethical issues when providing healthcare services to people. Patients require stable organizations that can help them deal with various ailments, and it is crucial for a healthcare facility meets these requirements.
References
Martin, W. (2013). Beyond the Hippocratic Oath: Developing Codes of Conduct in Healthcare Organizations. OD Practitioner, 45(2), 26-30.
Philip, J. J., Gold, M. M., Brand, C. C., Douglass, J. J., Miller, B. B., & Sundararajan, V. V. (2012). Negotiating hope with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients: a qualitative study of patients and healthcare professionals. Internal Medicine Journal, 42(7), 816-822.
