Acre Woods is a private retirement community with 275 senior residents. Its mission is to improve the quality of life of its residents through physical and emotional care. Sarah Armstrong, Acre Woods’ resident physical therapist, manages the retirement community’s activity program. Recently, Acre Woods added a pool to its rehabilitation center to facilitate resident exercise and aquatic therapy. The residents’ monthly rent was raised to help finance the pool.
After the pool was constructed, Sarah immediately contacted the director of Acre Woods, Mark Adams, with concerns that the pool did not meet some important specifications included in the original design, such as nonslip treads on the stairs and improved wheelchair access to the pool area. Mark advised Sarah that the residents would be happy to have a pool, even if it did not incorporate all the requested special features. When Sarah asked why the new ramp and stair treads were not provided even though they were included in the budget, the director remarked that Sarah’s job was to provide physical therapy, not to worry about the budget.
Over the next month, four Acre Woods residents had minor falls using the pool stairs. While the accidents were not serious, other residents began to express fears about using the pool. Sarah contacted Mark again to relate resident complaints and to stress the need for pool accessibility and safety improvements. Mark informed Sarah that she was the only member of the Acre Woods staff who was complaining or concerned about the pool; therefore, there was no issue. Mark said that he had a report from another Acre Woods physical therapist, Gene Levy, reporting that residents enjoy the pool and that it has expanded opportunities for physical therapy. Sarah asked Mark to tour the facility in person to assess the situation, but Mark expressed that he was too busy to visit Acre Woods until the next quarter.
Two weeks later, Mark promoted Gene to Care Administrator of Acre Woods. Gene took over Sarah’s activity program duties and reassigned her to the assisted living unit. Concerned about Acre Woods’ ability to live up to its mission and suspicious about the missing funds from the pool project, Sarah contacted the local newspaper and related the entire scandal.
Questions
1. What are some potential legal and ethical issues present in this case study? In this case study, there are many potentially legal and ethical issues. The mission is to “improve the quality of life of its residents through physical and emotional care” but that is not the case. There have been incidents of some of the seniors having injuries due to the pool stairs. Management is not concerned for the welfare of the seniors and refuse to access the situation and correct it. If a senior is seriously hurt, they can sue for not ensuring that the patrons are safe and also have an investigation of the senior living facility for care neglect. Presenting this issue to the local newspaper can prompt the closure of the facility and the termination of staff as well as management. 2. How would you characterize the director’s behavior? The director should not be in this field because he does not care for the welfare of the people at the facility. Mark did not want to be bother and did not want to do anything that would cause him to have to do more work. He seemed as if he wanted to look good on paper and that is it. Any issues would be swept under the rug and anyone that would not do what he wanted is a problem. He refused to her Sarah genuine concerns and when she was persistent, he shut her down and promoted another person that would take her role in physical activity duties so that she would not be an issue and bother him with real concerns for the seniors. 3. Is the director an ethical role model? Why or why not? The director is not an ethical role model. Mark does not believe in or support the core values or the mission of the organization. Nor does he have the best interest of the seniors but he is interested in making himself look good. The director does not respect or value the opinion or concern of the staff as in Sarah’s case. His behavior cannot be emulated by others because he does not have the respect of the staff members. An ethical role model would put the interest of the seniors first, trying to uphold the mission of the organization and at least make an effort to listen to Sarah as well as look into the claim being made of the injuries that occurred. 4. Were the director’s messages congruent with the organization’s stated mission? Explain your answer. The director’s messages was not congruent with the organization’s stated mission. The director was not interested in Sarah’s concerns. The organization’s stated mission is “to improve the quality of life of its residents through physical and emotional care” and the director was more concerned about not bringing attention to the facility with the issue of the senior’s safety and the potential major injuries that could occur. When told that some seniors were injuries from falls, the director dismissed it. The director could have scheduled to meet with Sarah to address the safety issue and make the proper adjustments to correct the pool. 5. What impact did the director’s actions and attitudes have on the Acre Woods culture? The director’s actions and attitudes has a definite impact on the Acre Woods culture. The message he sent throughout the community is that he does not care about the welfare or the safety of the seniors, nor does he follow the protocols of correcting any issues. The director shows that he has no integrity and has compromised the integrity of the organization by demoting the therapist and replacing her with someone who “will not make waves”. Sarah was demoted as a punishment also to intimidate her not to cross him. Sarah made plans to contact the newspaper about what was taking place at the Acre Woods and the seniors living there, which will have a devastating effect on Acre Woods. This can prompt an investigation, possible lawsuits and seniors being pulled out or low enrollment.
