Health Care Provision and Financing

A major ethical dilemma in healthcare provision and financing is balancing fiscal responsibility and provision of care. Healthcare administrators are often responsible for making critical decisions that affect both the quality of care delivered and the needs of their healthcare organization (Menon & Padhy, 2020). It is very difficult for them to balance competing demands and sometimes it pits budget, ethics, and quality against each other. For instance, they may have to choose between repairing equipment or buying new ones and hiring more staff to reduce the ratio of nurses to patients. A significant ethical challenge that healthcare providers face is the financial aspects of care. They have to balance costs and treatment effectiveness with quality of care. They also need to pay attention to how their hospital facility distributes scarce facilities most fairly to many people and how it addresses the need of disadvantaged populations. According to the ethics of healthcare, healthcare providers are responsible for confronting the issue of lack of adequate care and advocate for informed and fair decision-making (Skirbekk, Hem & Nortvedt, 2018). The hiring of new nurses to improve the quality of care would be an ethical decision. However, a hospital facility may also need to upgrade its equipment to provide quality services. This is a major dilemma that that healthcare administrators face in healthcare provision and financing.

One pro that is inherent to this dilemma is that healthcare providers have to make critical decisions and balance the two issues. The latest medical devices and treatments are more expensive than the old ones and are the mainstay of contemporary medicine. Both actions contribute to the quality of care (Skirbekk, Hem & Nortvedt, 2018). This may lead to the quality provision of care and faster and more developed methods of diagnosing patients’ problems. This decision is ethically right because it contributes to the quality of care and best patient outcomes. The same applies to increasing the number of staff which will lead to adequate and proper care for individual patients. Thus, health care administrators need to carefully balance the costs with expected benefits and make wise decisions that include meeting both requirements.

A major problem with this ethical dilemma lies in the decision-making process between the two options. Healthcare administrators have to make ethical decisions to address the uncertainties regarding competing values. Buying of new equipment can lead to significant costs on healthcare even though the decision does not directly contribute to patient outcomes. Due to this, administrators may face situations where some specific medications or procedures are not covered by insurance (Menon & Padhy, 2020). As a result, patients and their families may feel discriminated against because of their financial challenges or frustrated due to lack of coverage. Nonetheless, unnecessary and wasteful treatment leads to escalating healthcare costs. Nonetheless, hiring new staff would mean that healthcare facilities have to set aside a significant amount of money to cover salaries and other things.

Administrators need to come up with effective solutions to solve this ethical problem. The biggest challenge is that the ethical dilemma cannot provide an obvious solution that will directly comply with healthcare ethics (Skirbekk, Hem & Nortvedt, 2018). To solve the problem, they need to carefully analyze the option and find alternative solutions. An alternative solution to this dilemma would be to seek financial assistance from the Federal government to help cater for both new equipment and an increase in staff to patient ratio. This can help administrators to avoid weighing the two options.

References

Menon, V., & Padhy, S. K. (2020). Ethical dilemmas faced by health care workers during COVID-19 pandemic: issues, implications, and suggestions. Asian journal of psychiatry, 51, 102116.

Skirbekk, H., Hem, M. H., & Nortvedt, P. (2018). Prioritizing patient care: The different views of clinicians and managers. Nursing Ethics, 25(6), 746-759.