Let It Pour - Case Study

Case Study: Let it Pour

Health care systems have been a major and complex problem from the day they were formed. Hospitals must run efficiently and still maintain the letter of the law. When laws and ethics begin to mix, the recipe reeks of disaster. Lawsuits, rising health care costs, and greedy CEO's have added to this already volatile concoction. This case study analysis will attempt to resolve one man's crisis when he is forced to face an increasing dilemma within the fictitious hospital system.

The problems for this hospital are wide spread. The critical quandary seems to be in the interpretation of the hospital's mission statement. The mission statement is much too broad and open to individual interpretation. Every department has its own idea of what this mission statement is attempting to convey. Even members within the same department are in disagreement over its meaning.

Another area of concern is a lack of operational ground rules. There are no set guidelines for the staff to assist in their decisions. Ethics, civic laws, and the Hippocratic Oath seem to be the only guidance given within each department. Without any "rules of the game," much of the decisions are all based off vague interpretations of each of these areas. The outside influences are weighing too heavy within their decision making process.

To add to the confusion of no ground rules to operate by, there is little to no distinction between ethics and laws. This is creating another area that is being heavily influenced by personal beliefs and ambiguity in the letter of the law. Again, adding too much room for outside influences such as cultural backgrounds, parental upbringings, and religious beliefs to become the sole basis of their decision making process.