How Lack of Adequate Financing for University Hospitals May Incapacitate the Hospitals

IDENTIFICATION OF MANAGERIAL, FINANCIAL, LEGAL AND ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS
Institution
Date
As noted from the evolution of the problem, lack of funding for university hospitals not only means lack of comprehensive care for patients but also leads to reduced number of research conducted by these hospitals. Additionally, lack of proper funding impacts the hospitals financially, legally, ethically and also in managerial perspectives. The following paragraphs explore how lack of adequate financing for university hospitals may incapacitate the hospitals legally, financially, managerially and ethically.
Financial and management implication
Lack of funding affects managers in that it creates a lean workforce that some time may not be adequate to run the hospitals. Budgets shortfalls lead to shortages in staffing thus creating a gap in service delivery. Hospital administrators and managers will have to form a way to maintain quality healthcare and operational efficiency. Financial implication means that there would be a decrease in training of staff, decrease in staffing and limited resources available to conduct research and offer proper healthcare. Studies have shown a closer relationship between increasing in nursing staffing and reduced rate of readmission and increased quality health care. McHugh &Ma (2013) found that hospitals that were fully staffed and that had less workload for its nurses registered a lower readmission rate compared to those with poor nursing funding.
University hospitals not only offer patient care but also participate in research. Managers have to decide whether to channel the little fund available to purchase the costly equipment for research or use them in patient care. This is a managerial dilemma that is faced by university hospitals as a result of inadequate funding. Lean staff exposes the management to a higher rate of lawsuits which also lead to loss of revenue for the hospitals. Greenwald and Huang, (2012) claim that hospitals loss up to $55.6 a year in medical liability. In most cases, hospital managers are forced to cut their hospital budgets to cover debts.
Ethical and legal implication
Patients deserve need-based, focused, safe, quality and sustainable healthcare which is delivered in the proper setting and under respectful and compassionate and professional manner. Low funding for hospitals means these conditions may not be achieved thus making access to medical care hard for most patients. Low funding has created a huge population of people with mental illness to be incarcerated in various jails, prisons, and juvenile facilities than they are in a psychiatric facility (Honberg & Gruttadaro, 2005). This is caused by the fact that suitable alternatives like university hospitals and other healthcare facilities lack funds to help these people thus they get dumped and forgotten in the prisons and jai...