There isn’t an industry that wasn’t affected by the pandemic, but perhaps none were as impacted as the healthcare industry. From front-line ER staff to remote working admin positions, a lot has changed in healthcare over the last two years.

As a business, office, or practice in the healthcare field, you’ll want to make a note of a few critical standards within your ethics policies. In addition, many organizations are adopting ethics hotlines to help maintain compliance and reinforce a positive work environment in this new normal. Here’s what your healthcare business needs to know in 2022 and about how an ethics hotline can help improve these engagements.

Physician Responsibilities to Patients and Colleagues

Within the healthcare segment, there are sometimes chains of command that lead to the physician directly. And if that’s you, you likely hold yourself to a strict code of ethics regarding your responsibility to your patients and colleagues. But not everyone within the organization understands or abides by those same ethics. Having an ethics hotline for anonymous reporting can ensure that all staff members know and understand the importance of patient and colleague responsibility.

Professional Self-Regulation

One of the pillar codes of ethics in the medical community is professional self-regulation. Any practicing physicians, educators, professionals, clinicians, or business parties within the organization have a duty to a high level of conduct. Standards for anyone associated with, directly or indirectly, the health and well-being of others begin at the individual level.

That being said, unfortunately, not all individuals will hold themselves to those higher standards of professionalism and integrity. Having an ethics hotline available means giving a voice to anyone witnessing self-regulation violations and arming those who take these codes of medical ethics seriously.

Safe Patient Rights

The pandemic helped to transition healthcare into the digital landscape. Telehealth visits and remote working support staff are here to stay. But with this disconnect from the in-person care, there are new challenges. As your organization strives to protect patients’ data and rights, having an ethics hotline can ensure every layer of your team, in-office or not has access to report concerns.

Competence Reporting

Now more than ever, healthcare matters. So does misinformation. Regardless of how your health-related company contributes to the health and wellness of patients, any breakdowns in competence could be life-threatening. From a front-line worker giving inaccurate medical advice to an administrative professional executing a typo on a patient’s medical records, these mistakes could be devastating. To combat these instances, having an ethics hotline will ensure everyone involved has a safe and reliable way to raise awareness of any competence-related issues.

Reporting Ethical or Integral Violations

As you start the new year, revisit some of your ethics policies and procedures. Amend those that seem outdated or out of touch with today’s new post-pandemic landscape. And look for new tools, including ethics hotlines, to incorporate into your reporting process. Not knowing about integrity or ethics violations could be damaging to patients, result in non-compliance, and adversely affect your healthcare business.

When you’re ready to integrate an ethics hotline into your organization, let Ethical Advocate help you navigate the new normal. And we’ll support your efforts in health and wellness by providing you with the best form of ethics monitoring.