Companies must face the question of how to become more efficient and profitable often. It should be on the mind of every executive to find ways of getting ahead of the competition. All companies eventually are faced with a similar question, "we must make cuts to survive". This is more complicated for non-profit companies such as hospitals, who don't have profit margin to work with when trying to find ways to cut.
This is the dilemma Chris Smith was faced with in the article Critical Thinking Case Study - Business and Information Technology. His new boss, Pat, explained to him that business costs were rising, and the hospitals revenue base, patients, were declining. To matters worse, the costs were not proportionate to the amount of service the hospital provided and had to maintain a certain number of patients just to break even.
There are billing issues too, some employees were not willing to turn patients away when it was found out they had no insurance. While it was against company policy, employees were allowing certain medical services to be offered with no guarantee of reimbursement. The pharmacy was giving people medication, and allowing them to pay in installments. Other employees were giving medical service on pro bono bases. Not all staff was in agreement with this method either and others would require the patient provide proof of insurance, before offering any service.
The uninformed view on what can be offered when and where didn't stop there. Not all the medical workers could be involved in certain medical procedures due to it violating religious beliefs and values. An issue with the right to die was one, when patents were electing to not be resuscitated. Some doctors felt this violated their Hippocratic Oath to stand idly by while someone dies. These are people that feel if given the chance, they should always do as much as they can to save people from death. .
Regulators didn't make the problem any better either.
