What We Say, What They Hear: Perceptions of Organizational Values and Ethical Climate in the Health Care Setting

Abstract

Balancing the financial demands of hospital or clinic operations with the delivery of high quality, safe patient care is a vexing problem for health care executives. Operational goals around resource allocation present a challenge for leaders in that available resources are frequently not aligned with the demand for health care services.1 Clinicians at the bedside often cite organizational constraints as primary barriers to the delivery of the care they believe to be aligned with their personal and professional obligations to patients.2–4 Hence, these 2 priorities reside in perpetual tension. A moral conflict arises as each group attempts to reconcile these competing demands.