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March 1992
August 1995 (revised)
November 2000 (revised)
November 2005 (revised)
November 2010 (revised)
Statement of the Issue
The number and significance of challenges facing healthcare organizations are unprecedented. Growing financial pressures, rising public and payor expectations, consolidations and mergers, patient safety and quality improvement issues, and healthcare reform have placed healthcare organizations under great stress - thus potentially intensifying ethics questions and issues.
Now, more than ever, the healthcare organization must be led and managed with integrity and consistently adhere to professional and ethical standards. This means that the executive, acting with other responsible parties such as ethics committees, must foster and support a culture that not only provides high-quality, cost-effective healthcare but seeks to ensure the ethical behavior and practices of all staff.
Recognizing the importance of ethics to the organization's mission, healthcare executives must demonstrate the importance of ethics in their own actions and seek various ways to integrate ethical practices and reflection into the organization's overall culture. To create an ethical culture for all employees...