The Proposed Plan for Solving the Problem
The problem that occurred at Sharp Memorial Hospital was the rendering of subpar health services to two ill patients which is contrary to the function of a hospital. In so doing, the implications of the services could end up doing, even more, harm to the patient. The complaints showed that the hospital does a have a shortcoming in its management as the services provided could have been from the signing in the front desk to receiving the actual treatment. The coordination of all the services provided at the hospital thus becomes very important. A hospital is ethically charged with the responsibility to provide good healthcare, also known as beneficence, and any deviation from this is unethical.
The ethical dilemma in the case assignment is the failure to provide good healthcare services to patients, and the management has a role to ensure that it does not happen. If the management is not fulfilling its obligation to the actual healthcare providers like the physicians, nurses, and auxiliary staff and the patients it fails in this aspect (Callahan, 1975).
There are several alternatives to solving this ethical dilemma that involve the creation of conducible working conditions for the internal clients so that they can better serve the external clients of the hospital (Franco, Newman, Murphy, Mariani, 1997). Another alternative involves the introduction of a quality improvement program through which the patients give feedback on their satisfaction, or lack thereof, and suggest areas for improvement. It forms a big part of the improvement.
A quality improvement problem is a plan suitable for solving the problem. The plan involves the identification of the problem and the areas or opportunities for improvement as well as all those who are in the hospital setting. In identifying the problem, it occurs that not all areas have a problem in their service provision. It is important to make sure that the quality improvement plan is very specific in improving those areas with the actual problem and not overlooking it and failing in its purpose. Another component of the plan is defining the problem and the people responsible for it. It is very important to do so as it gives the problem boundaries and it helps the whole plan move along fast to solve the problem in time. The plan also involves developing actions and solutions for the problem as well as implementing them. It would be futile to devise such a plan, come up with solutions but fail to implement them, and devise a monitoring program to ensure that they are working. The monitoring program will then be able to identify new problems as soon as they arise and solve them before they impact others.
The plan simply will involve the identification of the problem followed by defining the problem at hand. Developing solutions and actions that are then implemented to solve the problem come afterward, and the final step is to monitor the efficacy of the plan. The plan requires the involvement of various participants. The first participants are the medical professionals who provide the care. They are obligated to provide quality healthcare, and the plan will require them to identify the problem. In so doing, the management can get their side of view on what happened at the time the problem arose. Patients provide their point of view of the problem and provide useful feedback about the progress of the quality improvement plan. Both groups are also involved in working on the problem, developing solutions and implementing them.
The quality improvement plan will help the hospital to avoid any other incidences if it is implemented and works as expected and thus, help the hospital achieve its functions and avoid any such future ethical dilemmas.
References
Bankausite V., Jakusovaite I. (2006). Dealing with ethical problems in the healthcare system in Lithuania: Achievements and Challenges. Journal of Medical Ethics. Retrieved online from
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Buell J. M. (2009). Ethics and Leadership. Healthcare Management Ethics.
Callahan D. (1975). Ethical Issues in Healthcare Management. Proceedings of the Seventeenth
Annual Symposium on Hospital Affairs. University of Chicago.
Franco L., Newman J., Murphy G., Mariani E. (1997). Achieving Quality Through Problem
Solving and Process Improvement. Quality Assurance Methodology Refinement, 2ndEd. Bethesda, MD: Quality Assurance Project.
Iyalomhe G. B., Niger J. (2009). Medical Ethics and Ethical Dilemmas. Retrieved online from
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
