Healthcare industry risk and social harm

Introduction

As indicated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, a global pandemic can have severe adverse social and economic consequences for society. From a social perspective, the inability to properly communicate in a face to face manner can have grave implications for individual mental health and stability. For centuries, human beings have relied heavily on interacting, communicating and engaging with one another in a productive fashion. This distinctive ability allows ideas and thoughts to coalesce throughout society. From a business perspective, it has been this ability to interact that has created some of the best products and services throughout the world. Likewise, from a social perspective, there is large disruptions to traditional channels of communication and entertainment. The largest detractor is arguable that of education. Young children rely heavily on interactions with other students to learn about the world around them. They are able to learn difficult cultures, ways of thinking, along with various learning techniques. Here, this social order has been heavily disrupted as schools close, shut down, or move to a hybrid learning environment. Businesses such as bars, restaurants, concerts, and conferences where also cancelled further inhibiting social progress in society. Not only did this harm society from a social perspective but also from economic perspective (Aicardi, 2016).

The economic harm resulting for the COVID-19 pandemic is much more identifiable. Social impacts are much intangible and often can not properly measured with any certainty. Society primarily recognizes harm through the deterioration of various social networks and those areas in society that rely on them such as education. Economic figures, are the opposite, with harm being readily identifiable, analyzed, and reviewed. Here, the economic harm created from the pandemic was unquestionable. For one, the economic harm was heavily related to employee layoffs as a result of business shut downs. This business shut downs, in turn, created and rippling effect throughout the country as goods and services were not longer available. The most blatant of which occurred in the health care industry (Airth-Kindree, 2016).

Here, the combination of financial and social harm directly impacted the overall healthcare industry. From a social perspective, the inability to contain the virus meant that many healthcare personnel themselves had a strong possibility of becoming sick, thus placing further strain on the healthcare system overall. Likewise, due to the high contagion risk, certain healthcare service offerings were eliminated altogether as the risk of care was much higher than the benefit derived from providing the service. Likewise the economic impact on the healthcare sector was very meaningful as many organizations were unable to find personal protective equipment necessary to keep their employees safe. Likewise, medical equipment such as ventilators were in very short supply as demand quickly overwhelmed available supply. As a result, accommodations such as such created temporary hospital in parks, using military ships as treatment facilities, and providing incentives for healthcare workers to temporary relocate to domestic hotspots where heavily utilized (American Physical Therapy Association, 2016).

What are the ethical principle(s) related to the issue? Provide a detailed definition the ethical principle(s) identified and how it applies to this situation.

The economic and social harm caused by the pandemic also created a number of issues related to ethical principles. For example, the ethical principle of Autonomy is heavily associated with “free will” or the ability for individuals to act as their own agent. Unfortunately, the ethical principle of “autonomy” will significantly impact the ability of society as a whole to properly mitigate the impacts on the pandemic. For example, society is currently navigating the “Autonomy” ethical decision now as many consumers have elected to not receive the vaccine due to personal choice. The Biden administration has countered this be mandating all government employees and businesses with over 100 employees to obtain the vaccine or take weekly COVID tests. Unfortunately, the supreme court has ruled the business vaccination mandate for private sector organizations as unconstitutional. This is an ethical issue as society is heavily divided on how to properly alleviate the impacts on the virus on society. Many U.S. citizen do not want to infringe on the “Autonomy” principle by forcing consumers to take the vaccine. However this is juxtaposed against the greater good of society and reducing deaths in the country. This concept is related to “Beneficence” or the principle of caring. Typically this ethical principle applies specifically to the healthcare provider make decisions in accordance with the patients welfare. However, this concept of beneficence is occurring with the United States government attempted to act in the best interest of the country’s welfare. Here, the country is essentially acting as the “patient.” Unfortunately, as noted earlier, these infringes on the rights of consumers who have a choice as to what they would like to do with their body, even if it has adverse consequences for society overall (Beauchamp, 2017).

Finally, near the beginning of the pandemic, the ethical principle of “Justice” also created an issue as it relates to the allocation of treatment and resources around the country. Here, due to rapid spread of the virus, resources throughout the United States were limited. Consumers quickly hoarded items, cleaning supplies, food, and canned materials. Likewise, grocery stores limited food items and other necessities to help prevent hoarding on the part of consumers. Medical resources such as mask, gowns, personal protective equipment, and ventilators were also in short supply. As a result, these limited resourced needed to be distributed in the manner best suited for the benefit of society. Grocery stores limited certain purchases, healthcare providers eliminated elective surgery, healthcare professionals where relocated, and business restructured their operations to produce more equipment