I spent last week in London (I wrote the two posts before leaving) and will be in a little village in Italy in the foothills of the Maritime Alps this week. I'll be back to the blog on June 16.
Best to all!
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For discussion and debate about the ethics of health care organizations and the wider health system.
About Me
- Jim Sabin
- I've been in health care for 50 years -- as psychiatrist, medical director, teacher/researcher, consultant, leader of the ethics program at a not-for-profit health plan, and patient. I'm a clinical professor in the departments of Population Medicine and Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. With colleagues I've written two books about health system ethics: "Setting Limits Fairly: Learning to Share Resources for Health," and "No Margin, No Mission: Health-Care Organizations and the Quest for Ethical Excellence." I've had my Medicare card since 2004.
About the blog
Medical ethics has traditionally focused on the individual patient, the individual doctor, and the patient-doctor relationship. But today most care occurs in organizational settings – group practices, HMOs and ACOs, VA and more. Insurers and other third parties have a huge influence on the exam room. Medicare shapes care for the elderly and disabled. Medicaid does the same for the poor. Hospital cultures and policies affect what sick patients experience, for both better and worse.
All this means that the ethical quality of health care is profoundly influenced by the ethics of organizations. We can’t have ethical health care without ethical organizations.
In the blog I discuss how organizations engage with the ethical dimensions of their work. I look for approaches we can learn from, not simply to wring my hands and rant. I hope the blog stimulates discussion and debate, and encourage readers to present their own perspectives and suggest topics for postings. Although organizational ethics is my main focus, I also write about other ethical issues that interest me.
All this means that the ethical quality of health care is profoundly influenced by the ethics of organizations. We can’t have ethical health care without ethical organizations.
In the blog I discuss how organizations engage with the ethical dimensions of their work. I look for approaches we can learn from, not simply to wring my hands and rant. I hope the blog stimulates discussion and debate, and encourage readers to present their own perspectives and suggest topics for postings. Although organizational ethics is my main focus, I also write about other ethical issues that interest me.
Blog Archive
Labels
- abortion (19)
- accountable care organizations (38)
- advocacy (66)
- aging (30)
- blaming the victim (3)
- chronic illness (27)
- compassionate care (15)
- complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) (10)
- costs (110)
- doctor-patient sex (32)
- employer insurance ethics (14)
- end-of-life care (10)
- ethics education (88)
- ethics process and tools (49)
- Facebook (7)
- family and ethics (7)
- health care reform (69)
- health plans (45)
- health system ethics (105)
- hospitals (33)
- India (17)
- international ethics (43)
- law and ethics (40)
- leadership and management (75)
- Massachusetts (42)
- medicare (38)
- mindfulness (4)
- National Health Service (20)
- new hampshire (10)
- Oregon (6)
- paranoid style (7)
- pharmaceutical industry ethics (66)
- physician-patient relationship (54)
- primary care (54)
- psychiatric ethics (95)
- rationing (50)
- research ethics (17)
- safety net (15)
- Singapore (5)
- single payer (2)
- social determinants of health (1)
- social networking (9)
- spirituality/religion (90)
- telemedicine (1)
- transparency (37)
- trust (51)
- VA (3)
- Vermont (9)
- Virtual Medicine (8)
- writing about patients (4)
Some Interesting Sites
- American Journal of Bioethics Editors' blog
- Business Ethics Blog
- Carlat Psychiatry Blog
- Commonhealth (MA health care reform)
- Global Bioethics Blog
- Health Beat (by Maggie Mahar)
- Health Business Blog
- Health Care Renewal
- Healthcare Ruminatio
- Healthcare Today
- Hooked: Ethics, Medicine, and Pharma
- Hospital Impact
- Kevin,M.D.
- Managed Care Matters
- Running a Hospital
- The Covert Rationing Blog
- The Health Care Blog
- Wachter's World
- Wall Street Journal Health Blog