If your business is in the healthcare space, as a private practice, care organization, or supplier in the industry, you’ll face unique ethics risks and challenges that other industries won’t. And with emerging concerns regarding everything from patient data to rendering health services, your organization will need a new playbook for risk mitigation. Explore some of these new challenges and potential solutions, helpful to your healthcare business model.

Healthcare Services and Unique Ethics Risks

If you’re in the business of providing healthcare services, you already know the unique ethical concerns you face. These might include ethics relating to:

· Do-Not-Resuscitate Care

· Doctor and Patient Confidentiality

· Negligence or Malpractice

· Access to Care

Another caveat to healthcare is that it’s often needed outside of traditional business hours. Health and wellness is a 24/7 industry. And each of these areas calls for a precise approach to managing ethics.

An ethics hotline is a great method for providing added oversight at every level of care, including those instances of after-hours health services. Identifying concerns and risks quickly means avoiding catastrophic healthcare-related mistakes in these scenarios.

Healthcare Challenges with Compliance and Patient Data Protection

Many healthcare providers and services use third-party patient data reporting methods, which are convenient for patients who want real-time access to their data in dashboard form. But with these third-party partners, there are potential risks for data breaches and misuse.

There are also compliance concerns to consider. For example, HIPAA guidelines are also imperative in regulating how patient data is shared. You’ll also seek to operate within the governance of CDC and FDA regulations, as well. Violations of these regulatory compliance rules can result in serious repercussions and steep fines.

Today’s healthcare organizations are turning to ethics hotlines to help. Having an added anonymous channel for reporting concerns allows providers and businesses to have increased knowledge of violations and risks.

Healthcare Challenges with Business Operations

While your healthcare organization is likely rooted in patient care, at its core is a business operation. And there are unique risks there to manage as well. More traditional business model ethics risks include:

· Sexual Harassment

· Theft

· Bribery

· Discrimination

An ethics hotline can be effective in reducing and mitigating these types of operational risks. Again, because it’s a channel for confidential reporting, any of these instances of misconduct can be reported for immediate investigation and remedy.

An Ethics Hotline Can Help

As a healthcare provider of products or services, you can leverage the many benefits of an ethics hotline for every facet of your business, with the ability to address every emerging challenge you face today. From patient care to data protection, an ethics hotline can be just the solution you need. And with robust data and ongoing management of reports, you will stay ahead of costly mistakes and violations that are detrimental to your business.

As an ethics hotline partner, Ethical Advocate can help you develop, establish, train, and manage your healthcare organization’s hotline implementation. Start taking advantage of this powerful risk mitigation tool and improve every aspect of your business model. Connect with our ethics team today to get started!