Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Blog for week 2

Hi Class,
The blog for this week will be due on Thursday, March 22. 

This week you should develop your internal and external ethics.  Your assignment is to define and list what should be addressed in an internal and external ethics statement.  Each group should list 2 topics for internal and 2 external ethics statement topics to be addressed. The 2nd person in each group will post a summary on the blog.  This assignment is worth 2 points.

24 comments:

  1. Group 14

    As stated in class, internal versus external ethic statements represent how you will conduct yourself inside of your office versus outside of your office, respectively.

    Internal ethics are more directly related to how your business runs. Examples of internal ethics are: 1) how money will be handled and 2) rules and regulations of HIPAA and OSHA. Money is an important aspect in internal ethics because business owners should not allow the person collecting payment to write checks for the office. Granting both of these business tasks to the same person puts that employee in a position of power. This power may lead to embezzling from your office. Second, all employees must be aware of HIPAA and OSHA regulations. Employees should have easy access to the OSHA kit. In regard to HIPAA, all computers should be password protected, screens should not be visible to patients and employees must adhere to HIPAA guidelines.

    External ethics deal more with how business owners represent themselves and their offices in public. Examples of external ethics include: 1) ethical marketing and advertising and 2) health screening protocols. Ethical marketing and advertising may be accomplished by avoiding "bait and switch" advertising and avoiding the pitfall of promising/guaranteeing results in ads. Ethical means of promoting your business via health screenings include abiding by HIPAA regulations when collecting personal and health information from potential customers.

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  2. Internal ethics deals with the inner working of the office, therefore the following must be addressed:
    1- Standard accounting practices
    2- Following OSHA and HIPAA guidelines in the office

    External ethics which must be addressed are:
    1- Following the state specific scope of practice
    2- Using ethical advertising procedures

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  4. Its important to have your own set of morals set in stone before a situation may arise. Many people will use a mentor or religion.
    A couple of topics that we will address for our Internal Ethics are:
    1) Standard business accounting practices...ie money handling
    2) Complying with OSHA & HIPPA within the office.

    External Ethics will address the issue accountability to fellow docs or groups. A couple of examples of our External Ethics are:
    1) Following the scope of practice in our state(s)
    2) Utilizing ethical advertising & marketing practices.

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  5. Ethics within the office and outside the office are related, and inseperable, but there are unique aspects of both. External ethics addresses how one presents himself to the community. Honest advertising, involvement with the community, involvement with professional associations, and following the rules and regualtions set forth by the state board are examples. Within the office, th edoctor must maintain professiona relationships with employees/coworkers, treat patients with respect, honoring the confidential nature of the doctor/patient relationship, adhering to standard accounting practices, and maintaining accurate and timely patient files.

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  6. An internal ethics statement should include how relationships with the patient and the doctor should be and between the docotor and the employees, as well as how the accounting and documentation and confidentiality of patient files should be handled. Also, an internal ethics statement should include what would happen if these principles were violated.
    An external ethics statement should include how the relationship with the business and the community around and between the business and the federal and state laws as well, such as OHSHA and HIPAA and Medicare. Also, the relationship with the business and insurance companies should be included.

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  7. Group 3.

    Your external ethics will have a major impact on how your practice will look to the community and the outside world, therefore it's critical to take this matter seriously. It's important to be honest and ethical in your advertisement, involve yourself in the community in a professional matter, and follow the rules and regulations set by the state at all time.

    How well your practice is run internally is largely dependent on your internal ethics. You as the doctor must conduct yourself in a professional matter at all time, and it's also important that you treat both your patients and your employees with the great amount of respect that they deserve. In addition to this, you must comply to the standard rules and regulations and follow the OSHA and HIIPA guidelines.

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  8. Ethics that will be discussed inside the office setting are
    1) Billing protocols- what is and is not acceptable to bill a patient.
    2) How to handle unfinished work, and where it is acceptable to be completed at
    3) Doctor patient relationship etiquette and employee-employee relationship etiquette.
    External ethics that will be discussed are
    1) appropriate public conduct outside the office setting for all employees.
    2) Patient confidentiality including records
    3) Honest marketing procedures.

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  9. Internal ethics focus on the inner works of the office and examples would be the following
    1) standard accounting practices
    2) complying with OSHA and HIPAA guidelines
    External ethics focus on the interaction with the community outside of the practice
    1) following your state's specific scope of practice
    2) using appropriate and ethical advertising

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  10. Internal ethics are the guidelines for how an office will be ran.
    1. How patients will be handled throughout the visit
    2. How employees will be reprimanded if a breach would occur.
    External ethics are the guidelines for how the business ail run within the community.
    1.No false advertising
    2. How it is expected to be professional at activies like screenings or health fairs

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  11. Group 8:
    Internal ethics are how you will have your office running from your point of view and what you or your partners beleive will work best for that particular office. These may or may not be laws in place. A couple ideas are:
    1)Follow standard accounting practices
    2)Follow the HIPPA and OSHA rules

    External ethics are out of your control and are guidelines that you must follow by law. A couple examples are:
    1) Follow you scope of practice within state laws
    2) Use of ethical advertising at to not mislead patients, which could lead to a lawsuit.

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  12. Group 15
    Internal Ethics:
    1)Non-discrimination: Employees may not discriminate any person base on age, race, creed, sex, sexual orientation or nationality.
    2)Finances: Employees must follow standard business accounting practices set forth by the IRS and outlined in the office manual.

    External ethics:
    1) Scope of Practice: All employees must act in accordance to the state scope of practice as well as any license scope of practice.
    2) Advertising and Marketing: Employees must use ethical advertising and marketing techniques that are in accordance with scope of practice, and HIPAA guidelines.

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  13. Group 17:
    External ethics account for how the doctor is viewed in the community. All actions made in public by the doctor are judged by the community. Advertising your business is essential when opening your practice so it is important to advertise appropriately.

    Internal ethics go along with interpersonal relationships with the doctor and the patient; as well as the doctor and his employees. Rules and regulations must be set for internal ethics to be met, such as HIPPA rules. A doctor with good internal ethics will be respected by his patients.

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  14. Group 9

    Internal Ethics
    1) Complience of HIPPA and a high reguard for patient confidentality
    2)Proper billing and accounting withn no fraudlent acts.

    External Ethics
    1) Make sure that you are practicing with in your states scope of practice.
    2) Relationship with the public making sure that all adverting is true and not misleading

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  15. Group 18:
    Internal Ethics: Pertains to the inner being, behavior, and choices of the individual, not only has a doctor, but also as a citizen. As a doctor, following guidelines and providing care in an ethical way is key. This all has to happen while having a positive attitude, and impacting on everyone you come in contact with in and out of the office.

    External ethics: The doctor you are inside the office must be translated to how you are outside of your office. Patients and the community should not see a change in personality or ethical take outside the doors. A doctor must be able to advertise and market his practice as well as himself in a manner of pressionalism at all times even out of the clinic.

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  16. Group 11:
    Internal ethics: Internal ethics are very subjective and depend a lot on who the individual is when no one is around. As a doctor, however, I think internal ethics needs to be more structural rather than subjective because we will potentially be forced to deal with the consequences of our ethics/actions.

    External ethics: A sense of professionalism not just for your practice but for the profession as a whole and what it has done by allowing us to do what we do today. This includes, but is not limited to, the front desk staff and how you interact with them as well as how they interact with patients. I also agree with many other posts that state that ethical advertising is essential to keeping a professional and positive outlook on the doctor and profession.

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  17. Group 5:

    Internal Ethics deals with the inner workings of the office. You should have systems in place before situations arise as well as the behaviour of the employees. You could institute a policy against employee’s emotional or physical involvement with patients, as well as for employees to behave in a professional manner at all times as they are representing the company. All patients should be treated equally regardless of their economic status. In addition to that, all employees should be treated equally, regardless of job title. That will help the company run smoother and promote better relationships between co-workers.

    External Ethics involves how you and your employees act outside of the office and how you represent your company. Advertising should be truthful and should not try to deceive patients into coming into your office for care. Billing should also be accurate and honest. You should not exaggerate services rendered just so you can charge more.

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  18. Group 16:
    Internal ethics:
    1) Standard accounting practices need to be discussed so that our patients and insurance companies are fairly charged for our services.
    2)Hippa is another important discussion so that our patients may feel safe that their privacy is very important to us.

    External Ethics:
    1) It is important to be an outstanding citizen by adhering to all laws. We would like to be people to be looked up to.
    2) It is important to maintain a professional network among the community.

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  19. Internal ethics pertain to how the doctor performs and contains his or her office setting. Interactions with patients and staff amongst other things. These might include how they deal with certain suppliers or distributors for the business.
    External ethics on the other hand lend a view as to how the office overall appears to the community. Does the internal environment match what people see regardless if they are a patient or an outside eye looking in?

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  20. Internal ethics should include such topics as standard business accounting practices and OSHA/HIPAA compliance. Accounting practices include paying appropriate taxes and filing taxes on time, paying staff a fair wage, keeping personal and business financials separate, billing appropriately. OSHA compliance is relevant when dealing with cleaning chemicals, xray equipment and materials, and blood/body fluid clean-up standards. HIPAA compliance relates to any protected health information of the patients and would include proper security of that information both inside and outside the office. All staff will be properly trained on HIPAA laws, including any contracted workers such as repair or cleaning companies which may have access to files and other confidential information.
    External ethics should include such topics as ethical marketing & advertising and following your state's scope of practice in interacting with patients and potential patients. All marketing and advertising should be fair and honest, and in no way misleading to the public. Scope of practice should always be followed when interacting with people in a doctor-patient relationship (for example, if giving advice on a health topic or question).
    Group #19

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  21. Hi Class,
    Please be sure to reference your group # in your posts! Thanks, Dr. Frost

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  22. We believe that internal ethics are those that pertain to how the doctor operates within the confines of their practice. Such as the doctor patient relationship, handling of personal/confidential information and respecting that people come to the doctor for help not to be manipulated for the personal gain of the doctor. The external ethics relate to how the doctor behaves outside their office. Examples of shady external ethics would be bait and switch marketing, signing people up for X number of visits at the mall, spinal screenings where everybody miraculously has scoliosis.

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  23. Group 13:

    Internal and external ethics are about creating a culture/atmosphere in your office with the purpose of not intentionally violating your State Code of Ethics or Conduct as well as protecting patient's rights.

    Internal ethics: Deals with relationships between the doctor and staff, doctor and patient, and staff and patients. Two things that need to be addressed:
    1.) Confidentiality - Discussing the absolutes of patient confidentiality as well as creating a culture of trust amongst all-patients, staff, and doctor
    2.) Professional Conduct - Including but not limited to dress code, treatment of patients, doctor, staff, answering the phone, attitude in the office, communication and how to give the best service to the patients.

    External ethics: Deals with not only our office but of the chiropractic profession and state laws as well as any other businesses/program we have/will partner with.
    1.) Conduct when doing external advertising and marketing events- honestly and with integrity knowing that you are representing the office as well as other chiropractors and holistic professions.
    2.) Obeying state laws - OSHA, HIPPA, practicing within our scope -

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