Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013 - 46

Healthcare Management Ethics

appeal for employees with a justified
need to opt out.
In their Feb. 15, 2010, article in the
journal Clinical Infectious Diseases,
Hilary Babcock and colleagues
describe how their organization, BJC
HealthCare, St. Louis, effectively
communicated its immunization policy to employees as part of a broader
patient safety initiative. This
included disseminating the information through the organization’s managers, educational materials, an
in-house newsletter and town hall
meetings. The key to their institution’s success was strong leadership, a
well-constructed policy and transparency regarding the ethical reasoning
driving the policy, including the opting out mechanism. Following the

implementation of any vaccination
policy there should be regular and
systematic assessment of the policy to
determine if revisions are needed.
Despite being designed to protect
vulnerable patients from preventable
morbidity and mortality, mandatory
influenza immunization is controversial. Opponents argue it subjects
healthcare workers to unnecessary
risks at the same time it infringes on
their personal rights. We disagree.
The ethical principles of beneficence
and nonmaleficence and the application of professionalism dictate that
healthcare workers should take reasonable steps to prevent influenza in vulnerable patients. Given the proven
efficacy of and low risks associated with

CONGRESS POStER SESSiON

Call for Innovations

Submit your entries for the 30th Annual Management Innovations Poster Session to be held
at ACHE’s Congress on Healthcare Leadership, March 24–27, 2014, in Chicago. Please go to
www.ache.org/CongressPosterSession to complete the form and attach your one-page
abstract. Your abstract should include: title, objective, planning/research methods, implementation methods and results (e.g., cost savings, increased productivity, improved quality of
care). Priority in selecting abstracts for presentation will be given to documented quantitative
outcomes. Entries must be received by January 21, 2014.
We are interested in your innovations and new ideas. Successful entries in previous years
have included innovations in:
• Cost savings
• Revenue raising

• Quality and organizational change
• Innovations in patient care

influenza immunization, a mandatory
influenza immunization system with a
fair and objective opt-out process is the
ethical approach to the prevention of
influenza-related mortality and morbidity in healthcare facilities. s
William A. Nelson, PhD, HFACHE, is
an associate professor at Dartmouth
Institute for Health Policy and Clinical
Practice, Geisel School of Medicine at
Dartmouth. He also serves as adviser to
the ACHE Ethics Committee. Nelson
can be reached at william.a.nelson@
dartmouth.edu. Tim Lahey, MD, is associate professor of medicine, Geisel School
of Medicine at Dartmouth, an infectious
disease physician and chair of the
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Bioethics Committee. Lahey can be
reached at timothy.lahey@dartmouth.edu.

Please go to
www.ache.org/
CongressPosterSession

8
to complete the
form and
attach your
one-page abstract

The top innovations will be published in the 2014 Management Innovations booklet and displayed at
the Congress on Healthcare Leadership. In addition, the participant presenting the innovation judged
to be the most creative, broadly applicable and useful to the healthcare management field will receive
a Health Administration Press book of his or her choice. Award winners will be announced at the
Malcolm T. MacEachern Memorial Lecture and Luncheon on Tuesday, March 25, 2014.
Take advantage of this opportunity to:
• Show the areas in which your organization excels
• Discuss your new programs with other leaders
• Demonstrate involvement in healthcare affairs when applying for advancement or recertification
• Interact with other researchers and practitioners
If you have not received acknowledgment of your poster abstract by January 31, 2014, or for more
information, please contact Leslie A. Athey, Director, Research, at (312) 424-9372 or lathey@ache.org.

Healthcare Executive
46 PosterSession_ND13.indd 1
nOv/DEC 2013

All individuals whose innovations are
accepted will be expected to present
their posters on Monday, March 24,
2014, between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00
a.m., as part of the poster session at
the 2014 Congress on Healthcare
Leadership in Chicago.

9/18/13 8:32 AM

Healthcare Executive - November/December 2013

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