How to make allocation decisions: a theory and test questions.
Hospital administrators are regularly faced with having to cut patient services. Such decisions are essentially questions of distributive justice, and administrators may welcome some guidance. We begin with a key idea from the most influential theory of justice of our times, that of John Rawls, and generate from it a series of test questions against which the ethical dimensions of allocation decisions can be judged.
D002170:Canada; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D004991:Ethics, Institutional; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000941:ethics*; D006740:Hospital Administrators / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D010558:Personnel Loyalty; D040841:Resource Allocation / Q000941:ethics* / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012935:Social Justice