Developing Organizational Ethics in Healthcare

A Case-Based Approach to Policy, Practice, and Compliance

Edited by Ann E. Mills, Edward M. Spencer, and Patricia Werhane

2001. 214 pages. ISBN 1-55572-064-1.

$24.95 plus $4.75 S&H. Please ask about instructors' discounts.

This book presents a series of cases on ethical issues in healthcare organizations. Organizations now dominate the delivery of healthcare. It is within an organizational setting that most healthcare delivery occurs. Yet there are few books that deal specifically with the ethical implications of organizational issues in healthcare, and there are few cases in casebooks that focus directly on the organizational aspects of healthcare ethics. This book remedies that situation.

The use of case studies is the best pedagogical method to teach healthcare organization ethics. Bioethics and clinical ethics have traditionally used the case method for teaching, illustration, and research. This approach is widely used in other fields such as law and business, and there is growing evidence that experts acquire much of their knowledge through cases and examples.

The cases presented have been collected from students, scholars, and practicing professionals, featuring cases from the U.S. and Canada. They are drawn from “real life” through news reports or from the experience and imagination of professionals and scholars. The editors include cases relating to the activities of patients, clinicians, administrators, managers, and other individuals or groups both within and outside of healthcare organizations.