Ethics in the Healthcare Industry

Ethics in the Healthcare Industry
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Ethics in the Healthcare Industry
Medical supplies in the 21st century are competitive products with pharmaceutical companies fighting for a larger market share. The competition stiffened when the government outlawed extravagant techniques of catching the attention of doctors and medical professionals in their respective health centers. Interestingly, the federal government considers lunches as a non-sequential marketing strategy that pharmaceutical companies may apply to woo the medical staff. New York Times’s Stephanie Saul developed an article titled Drug Makers Pay for Lunch as They Pitch provides more insight. She describes how these seemingly small lunches have an advance impact on prescription orders as well as the efficiency of health care provided. In addition, the payment of lunches corresponds to the type and number of prescribed drugs offered by doctors CITATION Ste06 l 1033 (Saul, 2006). A comprehensive analysis of the trend proves that these gifts are unethical and are deleterious to the quality of service offered to patients.
The incentives offered by sales representatives affect the delivery of timely and quality healthcare. Saul (2006) in his article acknowledges that some doctors keep their patients waiting as they talk to sales representatives. More so, some patients become weary of these representatives occupying crucial spaces in the waiting rooms of health centers and affecting the time spent by patients in examination rooms.

The Guardian’s Sarah Boseley in her article Drug firms try to bribe doctors with cars discusses the effect of bribes to the health of people in third world countries. She cites a Consumers International (CI) report which proves that almost 50% of prescribed drugs in those countries are prescribed or sold under questionable circumstances CITATION Sar07 l 1033 (Boseley, 2007). In a sense, these doctors receive aids from pharmaceutical companies with the aim of increasing sales through corrupt means. A patient might suffer from over-dosage or other illnesses because of taking medicine not suitable for his or her condition. From this analysis, it is clear that the trend is decadent and requires global attention.
On the other hand, some doctors argue that the free drug samples are a money-saving mechanism for health centers and helpful to low-income patients. Community clinics and financial unstable medical centers welcome the visits from these drug companies that provide free samples CITATION Ste06 l 1033 (Saul, 2006). Some of the doctors interviewed in the article by Stephanie Saul merit the gifts insisting that free samples are crucial when trying to offer good treatment to underprivileged members of the community. Nevertheless, the relationship formed undermines the integrity of the doctor and raises the cost of drugs in general. Tim Lahey, a professor from the School of Medicine in Dartmouth, in his article The High Cost of ‘Free’ Drug Samples states that “Physicians’ acceptance of drug samples not only undermines quality of care, it also likely increases the costs of care as pharmaceutical companies provide samples of expensive name-brand drugs and not less expensive generic alternatives” CITATION Tim14 l 1033 (Lahey, 2014). In so doing, the cost of healthcare increases to cover the cost of bribing the medical professionals and providing free samples. The patients end up paying more for drugs which have cheaper and still effective alternatives. Therefore, these gifts are unethical because they ultimately increase the cost of medical care for unsuspecting patients.
The idea of paying doctors through lunches, free samples, and material things is unethical. The term ‘unethical’ means the practice of doing things which oppose the shared code of conduct in any business environment. In this context, the activity outlined is unethical because it goes against the central duty of providing unbiased and quality medical care to patients. More so, there are notable short-term benefits such as free samples and allocation of specific time to meet with drug representatives. However, these perceived benefits are insufficient to countermeasure the effects of poor delivery of services to patients and overdependence on expensive pharmaceutical brands. Patients should receive affordable drugs whenever possible. Similarly, doctors should pick brands which are reasonably priced and of high-quality drugs for their patients.

References
BIBLIOGRAPHY l 1033 Boseley, S. (2007, October 31). Drug Firms try to bribe doctors with cars. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/31/international.mainsection1
Lahey, T. (2014, December). The High Costs of ‘Free’ Drug Samples. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from National Center for Biotechnology Information: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4274368/
Saul, S. (2006, July 28). Drug Makers Pay for Lunch as They Pitch. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/business/28lunch.html?ex=1159934400&en=27d9a9068542f1f4&ei=5070