Creating an Ethical Culture

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Owning up to mistakes is an ethical and moral decision. In healthcare egregious errors have occurred with the wrong medication administration, the wrong procedure, or the wrong surgery. A growing awareness of these errors has led to industry-wide practices more cognizant of human error and designing systems that check and double-check for potential mistakes or errors. With human lives at stake, the margin for acceptable error in healthcare is very low. However, for decades the number of errors was grossly under-reported out of fear that loss of a job and reputation were at stake. Creating environments where employees feel comfortable reporting errors and mistakes can be critical to understanding where changes in procedures and protocols need to be evaluated to reduce future errors. Please view the following Vantage video as it helps frame this activity:

Video entitled “Ethical Leadership: The Case of Step and Stone” in Video Activity 12.2

For this discussion, activity find a media story reporting on a mistake/error that occurred in either the healthcare sector or any other related sector which led to an unfavorable outcome. Share the story you found with your classmates (providing a link if possible). After doing your research on the event describe whether the event was potentially avoidable and how. Discuss the influence of systems design error or human error. Describe any ethical issues involved. In what ways was the culture of the environment a factor, if at all?