OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Ethical Communities Worksheet

Erica Kovarik

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

The organization I work for is Regional Health Services of Howard County. RHSHC is a
rural health facility that is located in Cresco, Iowa. It is an affiliate of MercyOne. RHSHC offers
a full scope of health care services from bringing new life into the world, caring for patients
through illnesses and emergencies, providing health care services for individuals in their own
home, offering long term care options, and finally, offering physical, emotional, spiritual and
social support at the end of life. This continuum of care is provided by dedicated health care
professional staff who look forward to taking care of patients and their families (Regional Health
Services of Howard County: IA). My role is that I am the supervisor of the Business Office. As
the supervisor in the business office, I look over registration for outpatient and the billing
department. The business office handles claims, insurances, revenue, and charges. If they have
any questions or concerns, they can come to me directly.

The situation I am having to handle over the next five modules is that we had a patient
that had complained to our head of board with RHSHC. This patient was upset because someone
in the business office had broken HIPPA regulations and gave out confidential information. The
patient did not know who did it though. Per the head of board, the patient stated, “they knew that
it was from the business office and it was a woman. I am not exactly sure what woman it was,
but she leaked information about me that should never have been leaked. I am very upset and
hope that you take care of this!” With this, there are two biggest concerns because the patient did
not give us exactly what team members did break HIPPA regulations and that all the team
members in the business office are female.

2) Describe how the ethics of the organization influenced the situation.

Regional Health Services of Howard County has a very strong ethic and moral code.
Ethics ultimately must be rooted in the sole: an organization's commitment to deeply rooted
identity, beliefs, and values. (Bolman, 2017, ch 19). We want to provide and perform the best
services to are patients. We want to make sure that they feel safe and comfortable when they
choose us for are health care needs. When it comes to ethics within RHSHC, we want to make
sure that we are doing the best we can do and making the best chooses for you as a patient. When
something unethical happens within RHSHC, they want to make sure they make the most ethical
decision on how to handle the outcome the situation.
 When it came to this exact situation, I feel that ethics did influence the situation. RHSHC
wants to provide the best service they can provided to there patients and community. In this
certain situation, when the patient went directly to the board, the board wanted to get this taken
care of right away. They wanted to ensure the patient that her privacy is very important and that
was a huge mistake on are end. Ethically, this is exactly what should happen and that the person
that leaked the information should be approached and protocol should be followed. This situation
made it hard and tricky because the patient did not give a direct person or name of who leaked it.
She just made the statement that someone did in the business office. This made it very hard to do
the must ethical thing to make it right.

3) Recommend how you would apply one of the ethical communities for an
alternative course of action regarding your case.

Bolman made the statement that efforts to do something about the ethical void in
management have ebbed and flowed as dishonor comes and goes. One proposed remedy is a
greater emphasis on ethics in business schools and training programs (Bolman, 2017, ch. 19).
Bolman also states that leaders need to understand that any event or process can serve several
purposes and that participants are often operating from different views of reality. Managers need
a diagnostic map that helps them assess which lenses are likely to be salient and helpful in a
given situation (Bolman, 2017, ch 15). Ethics can be hard when it comes to leadership. You want
to do the most ethical and right thing. But sometimes, you have to do what is best for your team
as well. You have to do what is right, and not wrong. You have to be able to distingue times
where you have to judge to situation at a more personal level.

I would recommend in this situation to slow down and really look at the situation at
whole. Now the most ethical thing here is to get the patient happy and follow protocol of
punishment. However, since we do not know exactly who leaked the information, and the patient
did not tell us exactly who it did, we cannot just punish anyone. We cannot just punish someone
that we think did it, when for fact, we were not told who did it directly. Bolman addresses in the
text that the key gift that leaders can offer in pursuit of justice is sharing power. People with a
voice in key decisions are far more likely to feel a sense of fairness than those with none
(Bolman, 2017, ch 19). I really feel that this is how this situation be approach. Not by the best
ethical way, but by the most fairness way. You sometimes have to sit back as a leader and choose
what the best approach is to handle certain situations.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have
learned about ethics.

If I was in the position to make the final call about this decision, I would use the leader
approach that I gave as an alternative. I feel that sometimes, when it comes to doing the right
thing, you need to have not follow your ethical procedures that you put in place. You need to sit
down and review them and make sure that is the outcome you want for that situation. Even
though you have rules and protocols set in place, as leaders you need to be able to have some
flexibility when it comes to certain situations. Every situation is not going to be the exact same
thing. You need to be able to make changes when needed.

This frame really showed me that many views of leadership fail to recognize its relational
and contextual nature and its distinction from power and position (Bolman, 2017, ch 17).Leading
is giving. Leadership is an ethic, a gift of oneself. Ethics ultimately must be rooted in the sole: an
organization's commitment to deeply rooted identity, beliefs, and values. (Bolman, 2017, ch 19).
Sometimes it is hard when it comes to ethics. Not each situation is going to have the exact
answer. As a leader, you have to decide what the best choice is for your team and your
organization. I feel that the best decision for this exact situation is something that we need to
look past the ethics and do what is best for the team that is involved.
 References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and
Leadership (6th ed.) [2017]. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved 2020, from
https://app.perusall.com/courses/ogl-481-org-leadership-pro-seminar-i-2020-fall-
b/9781119281849?chapter=f01

Regional Health Services of Howard County: IA. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2020, from
https://www.mercyonenorthiowaaffiliates.org/rhshc/