[Does ethics pay off? Need and perspectives of value management in hospitals].

The economic pressure on German hospitals has increased considerably over the last years, mainly because of the introduction of a flat-rate payment system, and it will most likely further increase under the current demographic and political conditions. The growing dominance of economics in the inpatient sector increases the pressure on hospital staff and results in an increased volume of care (with sometimes inappropriate overtreatment) and uncontrolled rationing and a continuous struggle to maintain the quality of patient care. This development is not only alarming from an ethical perspective, but also impairs the hospital's economic performance. To counter the increasing economic pressure with "more ethics" does--according to the line of reasoning adopted in this article--not appear to be very successful. Rather, central ethical values in inpatient care have to become an integral part of hospital management. This value management first requires a clear definition of the normative standards, e.g. within a mission statement. Second, the realisation of the normative standards in routine inpatient care has to be systematically assessed, evaluated and managed. Since normative standards are difficult to measure objectively and on a quantitative scale, (repeated) surveys among hospital staff are the central instrument to secure the "internal quality" of the hospital. It appears very likely that more ethics in the hospital will pay off by improving its economic performance. The empirical proof for this conceptually extremely plausible hypothesis has yet to be provided.