Are non-profit hospital exec business relationships inherently unethical?

Non-profit hospital executives and administrators are up to 39 percentage points more likely to have business relationships with the hospitals they work for than employees of other types of non-profit organizations, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

The analysis results showed that out of 2,300 non-profit hospitals examined, 46 percent of them had trustees with personal or familial business ties to the hospitals. But in the non-profit sector overall, only about 7 percent of such executives had such relationships.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, said the Journal. But the people in question and their colleagues should be aware of and try to avoid potential conflicts of interest and do their best to be transparent with other stakeholders.

It can, however, turn shady when such executives have to make decisions that come down to a choice between benefiting their own business interests or those of the hospital and its employees or patients. Check out the Wall Street Journal for examples of how these connections can get sticky and how different health systems take different positions on managing the relationships.