Athens Regional Medical Center

Health care organizations have the responsibility of providing ethical healthcare to patients within the organization and the community.

Many health care organizations utilize mission statements; core values and code of ethics as standards for the type of service they provide to their patients and the community. These standards serve as guidelines for the patients and community to understand the type or service and expertise to expect to receive from the health care organization.

Athens Regional Medical Center is a health care organization the uses a mission statement; core value and code of ethics to outline their goals and the services they will provide to their patients and the surrounding community. A copy of the mission statement; core values and code of ethics are placed in all areas of the organization public and private including nursing units to stand as an outline for the employees; patients and community to become aware of the services they will receive from the organization.

Athens Regional Medical Center has goals to deliver the best healthcare available within the organization and out in the community; to accomplish a mission that will help to deliver a vision of expertise and excellence in order to strive for accuracy and satisfaction of the patient's needs. Athens Regional Medical Center has to goal to provide quality care to their patients and the community in delivering the best service possible with excellent values that will deliver a caring, safe environment with dignity, respect and compassion. Athens Regional Medical Center has community based programs that will assist the organization in assessing and meeting the healthcare needs of the community. Athens Regional Medical Center is committed to providing the community with staff that is trustworthy, honest and loyal who is able to work in a diverse environment.

The vision that Athens Regional Medical Center has set for their code of ethics is to be known for the passionate pursuit of excellence and to continuously illuminate the progress and the achievement for all to experience and see. Using this code of ethics and ensuring that all personnel adhere to it allows the organization to achieve the goal of providing excellent medical care to their patients and the community. Athens Regional Medical Center has community based healthcare programs to assist the medical needy in the healthcare they require to stay healthy. Athens Regional Medical Center also has programs that assist in medical research such as cancer, the organization cater such programs and "In Their Shoes" which is a walk/run program for breast cancer and the Loran Smith Cancer which is a center that adheres to patient and community member battling cancer and their family and friends and community members.

Identifying and defining what an organizational culture is will promote the understanding of the relationship between the organization's culture and ethical decision-making. According to McNamara (2000), "organizational culture is the personality of the organization" (para. 1). This means that an individual can see what kind of culture and organization has by the way the facility looks, employees' dress code, or arrangement of equipment and furniture. There are four types of culture: academy, baseball team; club and fortress cultures. Academy culture contains knowledgeable and skilled employees who are passionate about their job and will work their way up the ladder. Baseball team culture such as high risk organizations employs people who are "free agents", which mean their skills are high in demand and can easily work for other competing organizations. Individuals who work for an organization that uses club culture have to fit in with a group, furthermore individuals working from the bottom up to receive highly values seniority. The fortress culture refers to organizations that undergo massive reorganization; as a result, employees worry when they will be laid off (McNamara, 2000). Athens Regional Medical Center's culture leads to ethical decision-making because the culture provides a secure working environment for their employees as well as a safe technological facility for patients to receive professional care. Athens Regional Medical Center is an academy culture in that it employs knowledgeable and skilled employees who are passionate about their jobs; with this knowledge and passion the employees make ethical decision daily. However when there is a situation that requires extensive reasoning there is an "Ethic Board" that gathers the facts surrounding the situation and base an ethical decision on that. In addition, Athens Regional Medical Center values honesty and integrity resulting in employees with high morals that will use this background to make ethical decisions.

Organizations have their own ethical values, just as individuals have their own personal ethical values. According to Mark S. Putman 2002, "Ethics is based on a set of moral and ethical values." Personal ethical values are what human beings look back on to help them make the right decision in a situation. The organization's ethical values and the employees' ethical values should support one another. The organization and the employee should be in agreement when it comes to ethics and caring for a patient, if the employee is not in agreement with the ethical values the organization has set in place it will affect the care that is given to the patient. If the organization's ethical values does not support the employees' ethical values and there is an ethical decision that needs to be made on behalf of the patient, but the employee and organization do not agree the patient will not trust either one and may not agree to the treatment that is needed. When the organization and employees are in agreement with ethical values they will strive for the same goal and provide outstanding health care to their patients.

Athens Regional Medical Center has a social responsibility in the community that responsibility is to provide the best available healthcare to the community. Athens Regional Medical Center holds that responsibility and provides that care to every patient that enters the organization