Discuss the effectiveness of the approach used by a professional to deal with problems or issues involving ethical practice in a case study.

Discuss the effectiveness of the approach used by a professional to deal with problems or issues involving ethical practice in a case study.

Summarize the facts in a case study and use the 3 components of an ethical decision-making model to analyze an ethical problem or issue and the factors that contributed to it.

• The ethical decision making-model:  moral awareness, moral judgement, and ethical behavior needs to be included in this paper
•  apply more than 2 of the ethical principles: autonomy, and nonmaleficence.

1. Length: At least 1 page typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page and reference page.
2. Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
3. APA Template: Use the APA Style Paper Template as the paper format and the APA Style Paper Tutorial for guidance. See the Resources for these documents.
4. Written communication: Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
5. References: Integrate information from outside sources to include at least two references (the case study and an academic peer-reviewed journal article) and three in-text citations within the paper.
6. APA format: Follow current APA guidelines for in-text citation of outside sources in the body of your paper and also on the reference page.

Ethical Case Studies

Consider the ethical dilemma the health care professional faces in the selected case study. Pay particular attention to details that will help you analyze the situation using the three components of the Ethical Decision Making Model (moral awareness, moral judgment, and ethical behavior).

Note: The case study may not supply all of the information you may need for the assignment. In such cases, you should consider a variety of possibilities and infer potential conclusions. However, please be sure to identify any speculations that you make.

Reducing Hospital Readmissions

Caleb Powell was preparing the agenda for the upcoming executive leadership meeting and he shook his head ruefully. As chief executive officer for Virginia County Regional Hospital (VCRH), Caleb believes that a key piece of VCRH’s future success lies in reducing readmission rates, not only in the areas identified by federal guidelines, but across the board. A few weeks ago, he read a piece from the National Institutes of Health discussing strategies associated with reduction in readmission rates. He decided that he wanted to discuss the issue in detail with his leadership team.

Caleb’s goal is to align the hospital’s strategic planning with the goal of reducing readmissions. The stakes are high; under provisions of the Affordable Care Act, hospitals with higher than expected 30 day readmission rates for heart failure, heart attack and pneumonia are penalized with reduced payments. Historically, hospitals (including VCRH) have struggled to avoid the penalties, but Caleb believes that believes that a focused approach will allow them to be successful. He also believes that reducing readmission rates will improve patient satisfaction, which has become a key metric in measuring hospital quality.

Caleb’s initial research into this issue revealed that while many facilities were incurring the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) penalties, there was still significant variability in terms of hospitals implementing successful strategies for reducing their readmission rates. However, several themes have emerged. Hospitals that established partnerships with physicians, physician groups and other local hospitals have had greater success. In addition, a clear discharge planning process and nurse driven medication reconciliation have also been associated with reducing the risk of readmissions.

At the same time, Caleb is concerned that an aggressive policy to avoid readmissions could be construed as too focused on the hospital’s bottom line and indifferent to patient needs. The last thing he wants is to create a policy that prevents patients from seeking or receiving care. Caleb hopes that this meeting will begin a productive discussion around developing strategies to improve VCRH’s performance in this area.

Caleb’s email to the executive leadership team with the agenda for the meeting included the following note:

“As we research the readmission rate issue for improvement, we need to be aware that we cannot add additional days to the patient’s initial stay. It’s a balancing act. We also cannot hinder a patient from coming back into the hospital for a readmission. I’ll be asking for your input about whether we should create a system to profile health care providers whose patients have high readmission rates