title: How to make allocation decisions: a theory and test questions.
abstract: 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.
mesh_terms: 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