Strategies for promoting ethical decision-making in health care organizations - Essay Example

These are public statement of professional standards and provide organizations with guidance regarding what is expected of them in the course of the dispensation of their services. However, these codes, are unable to provide adequate support regarding specific cases. (Beyerstein, 1993) That is why additional strategies for supporting ethical decisions must be adopted. The creation of an ethics committee to assist health care clients, families and professionals, is one of the most common and effective strategies in regard to ethical decision-making.

The positive impact of this strategy is that the composition, consisted by physician, other health care professionals, social workers and representatives from community or religious groups, helps in arriving at comprehensive agenda and decisions that balance issues in making ethical decisions. According to Post, Blustein and Dubler (2006) the organization’s ethics committee serves a vital function by monitoring the consistency of the institutional mission and goals with the policies and procedures that guide them, and that the administrative decisions about them must be grounded in or consistent with the ethical principles and values that inform the institutional missions. (p. 135) Specifically, writes Roberta Lowey (2000), ethics committee has three functions: education, policy consultation and case consultation. (p. 93) An example follows: An ethics committee provides consultation when in a case where a patient, family, and physician need help in reaching a difficult medical decision.

It does so by making recommendations that are within range of ethically acceptable alternatives The ethics committee is part of a larger strategy in the form of an ethics program. This program has the potential to bring to the organization other benefits that may not be directly related to its central goal. The program allows an