- BUS FPX 4121 Assessment 2 External Forces and Ethical Challenges.
External Forces and Ethical Challenges
From the phenomenon, there are several examples of external market forces; population structure, government policies, economic conditions, politics, legislation, and environment that have a great influence on healthcare organizations in the current dynamic healthcare scene. Managing health care becomes a challenge due to these constraints and it becomes the mandate of the health care management to overcome such ethical issues that may emerge. The growing population representing the demand for long-term care services being considered in this report as an important market driver is the aging baby-boomer generation.
The demographic shift in this instance has ethical implications in determining where to allocate the resources, the quality of treatment that patients receive, and whether the patient’s best interests are being served. To increase the efficiency of external compliance with requirements, the paper identifies these problems and provides two solutions for their elimination. They raise awareness of how one can deal with these complex interactions constructively in a way that remains legal and ethical.
Market Force Affects the Healthcare Industry
The aging baby boom generation is another huge economic entity that will mandate exhaustive attention to health facilities globally. The aging of the baby boomers, defined as people born between 2015 and ‐22 in the United States is considered a massive demographic shift. The size of this influence is evident from the recent statistics which are dated (Song & Ferris, 2017).
According to the US Census Bureau, the 1960-born and 1970-born populations were about 72 million living in the United States in 2021, which was around 22 percent of the population. They are requiring healthcare services at a higher frequency because of the increasing complexity of their health needs as they advance in age (Mather & Kilduff, 2020).
Most industrialized countries are beginning to feel the pinch of a degenerating baby boom generation. For instance, similar demographic trends are evident in Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and other developed countries where healthcare facilities are under huge pressure due to an aging population base.
The predictions made indicate that the proportion of the World’s population that is aged 65 and above is going to grow from 8. 5% in 2015 to 17% by 2050, thus, there is a need to increase budget allocation towards health the Why statistics from the World Bank (WHO, 2020). The high prevalence of healthcare needs that older persons require is evident from this global trend (Kossioni, 2023).
There is a multifaceted problem that the healthcare business is confronting because of the care of the aging baby boomer generation. One of them is, healthcare facilities whose service has been rapidly increasing due to the growing number of people with chronic diseases requiring care, including nursing homes, assisted communities, and home health services. Overall growth in healthcare employment has been noted and recent data from the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has depicted a steady increase in issues to do with employment, particularly in areas concerning extended care.
For instance, there were nearly 123000 fresh posts in home healthcare services alone in 2020 (Dillender et al., 2021). Not only does the healthcare sector require enhancements in terms of infrastructure, but with the young population aging the need for healthcare services will be growing, there is also a need for qualified staff able to provide the elderly with the required kind of assistance.
Secondly, a complicated resource allocation is another problem tied to healthcare institutions because of the aging baby-boomer population. Interactions with chronic diseases and delivering terminal care also strain healthcare facilities, as revealed in the Journal of the American Medical Association and other scholarly publications. Using the example of healthcare companies, it is vital to mention that companies face ethical dilemmas regarding resource distribution while maintaining the quality of treatment since the number of patients with complicated and costly operations is constantly growing (Holman, 2020).
The healthcare business locally as well as internationally is considerably influenced by one of the most powerful forces of the market which lies in nursing the aging baby boomers. New data focuses on the demographic shift and its consequences such as increased healthcare expenses, problems with resource distribution, and/or professional ethical dilemmas. Meeting the healthcare needs of older persons is emerging as one of the most pressing challenges across the globe, and this is an area that requires the most careful consideration and ethical appeal from healthcare organizations (Gill & Cameron, 2020).
Ethical Challenge Related to a Market Force
The fact that there are many aging baby boomers which requires extended healthcare facilities gives rise to the market force ethical decision concerning fairly providing healthcare resources within long-term care facilities. Specialized and long-term care centers such as nursing homes and assisted living centers will expand in the future due to baby boomers aging. Thus, major ethical issues arise concerning the allocation of resources for these healthcare institutions due to the rising demand (Fmiguez, 2021).
This situation, together with the new and more complicated needs of care among the increasing population of elderly people, raises an ethical question, especially regarding the shortage of the healthcare workforce, financial resources, and accessible space. This difficulty has several effects on how organizations manage: This difficulty has several effects on how organizations manage:
So currently within the sector of healthcare one has seen that there is a significant amount of competition for the available resources because meeting the complexity of the needs of the elderly population is something that could hardly be accomplished with the limited funds available to the managers. For instance, they consider the composite mix of the residents’ acuity levels regarding staffing of the nursing personnel and medical equipment (Keogh et al., 2020). Healthcare administrators have the moral responsibility to ensure a fair and balanced distribution of resources.
These are indications that some citizens should not be favored to the detriment of other citizens. O’Sullivan et al. (2022) have it that the needs are conflicting that leaves the manager in an ethical dilemma. Another reason the health of the elderly is compromised is the question of ethics concerning the distribution of resources in the standard of care for the elderly.
To ensure that all people occupying the structures get appropriate and compassionate treatment, the managers are required to make decisions that do not compromise the quality of care for any member (Harrison et al., 2018). There are ethical principles such as patient-headedness that state that residents’ needs should be of paramount concern in healthcare administration. As pointed out by Olejarczyk and Young (2022), this means advocating for the healthcare needs and assets that people need.
Considering that baby boomers are aging this becomes a market force that has an ethical issue that impacts organizational management by requiring a conscious effort to be made in terms of resource availability. To effectively address this challenge, health managers must grapple with the imperative principles of justice, equality, fairness, responsibility, and patient advocacy, besides the quality of care. There is always the dilemma of fulfilling the needs of the aging population and at the same time ensuring that ethical standards are maintained in the management of long-term care institutions.
Evidence-Based Strategies
The following measures that are supported by data may be implemented to address the ethical issue of fair distribution of resources in long-term care institutions regardless of the place that has been considered due to market pressure to take care of the aging baby boomers. Also, the CSR programs might be agents of change concerning ethical actions and decisions. The suggested approaches are as follows: The suggested approaches are as follows:
To support the task of efficient resource distribution, implement ethical decision-making models, such as the Four-Component Model or Six-Step Ethical Decision-Making Model. In the opinion of Treras et al. (2021), it is stated that it offers structured patterns of evaluating ethical dilemmas and ensuring the decisions taken are ethical. Appoint clinical ethics committees for nursing homes along with the other long-term care facilities.
These are composed of healthcare providers, ethicists, and community leaders who deliberate on ethical questions and answers for healthcare organizations like on the question of resource allocation. Research shows that these committees can make an organization more open and enhance ethical decision-making (Magelssen & Karlsen, 2021).
In resource allocation, consider residents’ special care needs with no reference to budgets or any other non-healthcare reasons. A needs-based approach ensures that in allocating scarce resources, they do get to that utility where it is therapeutically most justified, based on research in healthcare ethics (Radinmanesh et al., 2021).
This means that members of the health care team and supervisors should engage in continuing ethical education. Thus, based on the best evidence available to date, it can be stated that education in ethics enhances the ability of healthcare personnel to recognize and address ethical problems. include the use of healthcare IT/ data analytics in decision-making regarding resource allocation preferences; training can involve role-plays involving case discussions and elaboration of certain scenarios (Andersson et al., 2022).
The ethics of allocation based on evidence therefore is a process of assessing clinical data, patients’ performance, and general resource use. Every time possible involve the patients and the family members in decisions on how the resources are to be utilized. Research also suggests that involving patients and families in the allocation decisions will lead to better ethical and patient-oriented decisions (Grood et al., 2022).
BUS FPX 4121 Assessment 2 External Forces and Ethical Challenges
Design the corporate social responsibility initiatives that should address the ethical issues to do with resource distribution. To illustrate how resources are allocated, it might be a good idea for long-term care institutions to publicly declare how and when they make their financial reports. However, ethical decision-making may also occur concerning corporate social responsibility through community involvement activities (Chen et al., 2021).
Thus, these evidence-based solutions and target CSR programs may help to decrease or eliminate the ethical issue of the distribution of resources in nursing homes. Unsurprisingly, it may indeed be the policy and practice of HC Orgs to remain faithful to ideals of patient/client-centered care and ethical decision-making in the face of some of the daunting care delivery issues about the aging boomer population.
Strategies to Prevent or Address an Ethical Challenge
Just as external legislative policies and the prevention or management techniques suggested for the ethical issue, ensuring the fair distribution of resources in LTCIs is inherent, they share a logical connection (Kuipers et al., 2019). Most of the time, it is mandatory for healthcare businesses to follow rules established by external governing bodies to maintain legal and ethical standards. Concerning the discussed recommendations, both better ethical decisions and conformity with the external standards are among the expected outcomes.
For instance, Mehta et al. (2023) alleged that benchmarking requirements increase the importance of ethical dimensions in healthcare decisions. One way of managing this is by implementing ethical decision-making models and putting into place Clinical Ethics Committees. The legal rules of ethical standards were a definite part of both federal and state laws set by the CMS and the state departments of health. As stated by Flaubert et al. (2021), it is possible to use ethical decision-making procedures to demonstrate the willingness of healthcare institutions to fulfill these legislative obligations effectively.
Reforms of patient rights, care quality, and transparency directly affect how needs-based resource distribution, evidence-based decision-making, and application of patients’ and families’ engagement concepts are implemented (Teisberg et al., 2019). For example, principles to serve fair distributions and patient-centered treatment are also integral parts of the standard rules of the CMS. Besides, it is also revealed that strategies that align with such requirements increase the patient experience and outcomes (Kuipers et al., 2019).
-
Contributing to Positive Organizational Outcomes
Therefore, along with the finding of the solutions to the moral dilemma of resource allocation in nursing homes, the proposed solutions will be beneficial for the hospital’s financial reports, and will also keep City Hospital away from violations of the regulations. From patient satisfaction to the position of where the organization stands in the community, these objectives span the entire spectrum of health care administration.
The use of ethical decision-making frameworks in managing the patient’s matters enhances patient satisfaction and trust in City Hospital due to its promotion of ethical standards. Boubshait et al. (2022) also found in their study that patients and their families receive higher levels of satisfaction with the treatment that they are offered when the medical fraternity or healthcare organization, in this case, pays a lot of attention to ethical matters.
BUS FPX 4121 Assessment 2 External Forces and Ethical Challenges
It was noted that a more competent and more moral consciousness of the healthcare workforce might be attained with the help of creating Clinical Ethics Committees and making ethical training for the healthcare staff. Such enhancement of the staff’s ability to manage complex ethical issues is the ultimate goal which results in the enhancement of quality and safety of the patient care. Judging from the reduction of medical mistakes and the improved patient outcomes, the favorable result links with healthcare workers’ ethical competency (Moodley et al., 2021).
Conclusion
Thus, ethical principles must be followed strictly not only from the standpoint of the healthcare organization’s functioning but also from moral and strategic points of view let alone the fact that various outside factors and ethically doubtful situations accompany the healthcare industry.
Thus, it can be explained that complex processes exist in healthcare institutions for example City Hospital because of market forces, regulations as well as organizational outcomes. Healthcare businesses can, however, get around these difficulties and get impressive organizational outcomes through the employment of evidence-based procedures like excellent ethical decision-making and proper CSR strategies. This all-inclusive method encourages ethical standards, patients’ confidence, enhancement of the healthcare delivery system as well as the sustainability of healthcare. Read more about our sample BUS FPX 4121 Assessment 1 Ethical Theories and Principles for complete information about this class.
References
Andersson, H., Svensson, A., Frank, C., Rantala, A., Holmberg, M., & Bremer, A. (2022). Ethics education to support ethical competence learning in healthcare: An integrative systematic review. BMC Medical Ethics, 23(1).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00766-z
Boubshait, L. A., AlShamlan, N. A., AlShammari, R. Z., Alamrah, S. A., Fallatah, B. A., Abdel Wahab, M. M., & Alreedy, A. H. (2022). Patient trust in primary care physicians: A mixed methods study of persons with diabetes at university-based clinics in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Patient Preference and Adherence, Volume 16, 3241–3255.
https://doi.org/10.2147/ppa.s377500
Chen, C.-C., Khan, A., Hongsuchon, T., Ruangkanjanases, A., Chen, Y.-T., Sivarak, O., & Chen, S.-C. (2021). The role of corporate social responsibility and corporate image in times of crisis: The mediating role of customer trust. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(16), 1–20. NCBI.
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168275
Contreras, B. P., Hoffmann, A. N., & Slocum, T. A. (2021). Ethical behavior analysis: evidence-based practice as a framework for ethical decision making. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 15.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00658-5
Dillender, M., Friedson, A., Gian, C., & Simon, K. (2021). Is healthcare employment resilient and “recession proof”?. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 58, 004695802110602.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00469580211060260
Flaubert, J. L., Menestrel, S. L., Williams, D. R., & Wakefield, M. K. (2021). The role of nurses in improving health care access and quality. In www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. National Academies Press (US).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK573910/
Fmiguez. (2021, June 25). Long-term care: Aging and disabled adults literature review – Claude pepper center. Claude Pepper Center.
https://claudepeppercenter.fsu.edu/long-term-care-aging-and-disabled-adults-literature-review/
Gill, L., & Cameron, I. D. (2020). Identifying baby boomer service expectations for future aged care community services in Australia. Health & Social Care in the Community.
https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13187
Grood, C., Sypes, E. E., Niven, D. J., Clement, F., FitzGerald, E. A., Kupsch, S., King-Hunter, S., Stelfox, H. T., & Parsons Leigh, J. (2022). Patient and family involvement in choosing wisely initiatives: A mixed methods study. BMC Health Services Research, 22(1).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-022-07861-2
Harrison, K. L., Taylor, H. A., & Merritt, M. W. (2018). Action guide for addressing ethical challenges of resource allocation within community-based healthcare organizations. The Journal of Clinical Ethics, 29(2), 124–138.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6070378/
Holman, H. R. (2020). The relation of the chronic disease epidemic to the health care crisis. ACR Open Rheumatology, 2(3), 167–173.
https://doi.org/10.1002/acr2.11114
Keogh, F., Pierse, T., O’Shea, E., Fitzgerald, C., & Challis, D. (2020). Resource allocation decision-making in dementia care with and without budget constraints: A qualitative analysis. HRB Open Research, 3, 69.
https://doi.org/10.12688/hrbopenres.13147.2
Kossioni, A. E. (2023). Baby boomers in Europe: Demography, socioeconomic, and health status and oral health needs. Special Care in Dentistry.
https://doi.org/10.1111/scd.12838
Kuipers, S. J., Cramm, J. M., & Nieboer, A. P. (2019). The importance of patient-centered care and co-creation of care for satisfaction with care and physical and social well-being of patients with multi-morbidity in the primary care setting. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 1–9.
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3818-y
Magelssen, M., & Karlsen, H. (2021). Clinical ethics committees in nursing homes: What good can they do? Analysis of a single case consultation. Nursing Ethics, 096973302110032.
https://doi.org/10.1177/09697330211003269
Mather, M., & Kilduff, L. (2020, February 19). The U.S. population is growing older, and the gender gap in life expectancy is narrowing. PRB.
https://www.prb.org/resources/u-s-population-is-growing-older/
Mehta, P., Zimba, O., Armen Yuri Gasparyan, Birzhan Seiil, & Yessirkepov, M. (2023). Ethics committees: structure, roles, and issues. PMC Disclaimer, 38(25).
https://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2023.38.e198
Moodley, K., Kabanda, S. M., Kleinsmidt, A., & Obasa, A. E. (2021). COVID-19 underscores the important role of clinical ethics committees in Africa. BMC Medical Ethics, 22(1).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-021-00696-2
O’Sullivan, L., Aldasoro, E., O’Brien, Á., Nolan, M., McGovern, C., & Carroll, Á. (2022). Ethical values and principles to guide the fair allocation of resources in response to a pandemic: A rapid systematic review. BMC Medical Ethics, 23(1).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-022-00806-8
Okamoto, S., & Komamura, K. (2022). Towards universal health coverage in the context of population aging: A narrative review on the implications from the long-term care system in Japan. Archives of Public Health, 80(1).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-022-00970-8
Olejarczyk, J. P., & Young, M. (2022, November 28). Patient rights and ethics. National Library of Medicine; StatPearls Publishing.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538279/
Radinmanesh, M., Ebadifard Azar, F., aghaei Hashjin, A., Najafi, B., & Majdzadeh, R. (2021). A review of appropriate indicators for need-based financial resource allocation in health systems. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06522-0
Song, Z., & Ferris, T. G. (2017). Baby boomers and beds: A demographic challenge for the ages. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 33(3), 367–369.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-017-4257-x
Teisberg, E., Wallace, S., & O’Hara, S. (2019). Defining and Implementing Value-based Health Care. Academic Medicine, 95(5), 682–685.
https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000003122
Vian, T. (2020). Anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability in health: Concepts, frameworks, and approaches. Global Health Action, 13(sup1), 1694744.
https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2019.1694744
WHO. (2020). World Population Ageing 2020. Digital Library.