Article Review Sample: A Summary of “Hospital Corporation of America
Article Review: A Summary of “Hospital Corporation of America: Learning from Past Mistakes?” Business Ethics, 2013
Article Review Sample
SUMMARY
The Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation was once revered as one of the largest healthcare organizations that existed in the United States of America. Many people flocked to the company whenever they were in pursuit of fulfilling their medical needs. However, at the height of the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation experienced some backlash when the organization began to commit fraudulent acts.
In the late 1990s, the healthcare organization was chastised for some of the actions that they exhibited in regards to how the facility treated its patients. According to O.C. Ferrell, John Fraedrich and Linda Ferrell, the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation was accused for “patient dumping,” or continuously discharging or transferring a patient too soon before they demonstrated any signs of physical or mental stability. In addition to this, the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation came under fire “upcoding,” or cooking their books. In doing so, the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation began to file exaggerated medical claims in effort to increase the amount of money for which the organization was eventually compensated (Ferrell, Fraedrich and Ferrell, 2013, p. 445). But since the setbacks that the organization has experienced during such a tumultuous time, the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation has tried its best to improve its credibility by turning over a new leaf. This attempt included implementing and ethical and compliance program in which the company ended up hiring a team of professionals who are available to monitor all of the decisions that are made to assure that the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation’s practices remain honorable and ethical.
OPINION
I admire the fact that the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation has decided to improve its reputation with the creation of the company’s ethical and compliance team that the organization developed to oversee all of the occurrences that arise within the facility from time to time. The advantage to having the new ethical and compliance team are all of the benefits that such an entity will provide the corporation now that it has made the strides to carryout its operations in a morally righteous manner. Typically, when an organization exhibits ethical behavior, its chances of experiencing success are much greater. This is owed to the fact that exhibiting ethics in the field of business helps companies create and maintain honorable reputations for themselves, which is extremely important to assure that an organization experiences the longevity that is deserves. People like to work with others who have proved themselves to be trustworthy and honest about the decisions that are made within an organization throughout all of the ventures that a business encounters. Those who fail to conduct their endeavors in credulous manners frequently lose out on the opportunities that have the ability to lead an organization to a higher plateau.
In my opinion, creating the ethical and compliance team is the best decision that the Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation could have done for its practice. With the implementation of the ethical and compliance team, the corporation is now able to establish a sense of credibility within its professional endeavors. This new found sense of credibility will help the corporation to establish new professional relationships that it will be able to rely on to attain its goals.
References
Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J., and Ferrell, L. (2013). Business ethics: Ethical decision- making and cases (9th ed.). Mason: South-Western.
