The Gateway Hospital Case: Case Study: The Gateway Hospital

1. Brief Facts of the case – What do you think the ethical issues are in this case
The Gateway Hospital case major participants are Kristen and Troy. Kristen is a new employee at Getaway Hospital, and Troy is her supervisor. They recently went on a business trip to Orlando, where they attended a conference. Troy ended up skipping part of the conference to go with his family to Disney World and SeaWorld. When they got back wife suggested him to submit three meals and one extra night at the hotel as business expenses, even though they were personal expenses. Because Troy is aware that there is an opportunity to follow up on his wife suggestion because of the culture within the company and the lack of controls by his boss and the accounting department,

The chapter starts with a quote by Ethicist Rushworth Kidder (1944–2012) which states, “Kidder believed that self-reflection was the key to resolving ethical dilemmas, and a conscious sense of vision and deep core of ethical values provide the courage to stand up to the tough choices.” In this case we are given an ethical dilemma, and we must examine whether Kristine ethical values will provide the courage to stand up to the tough choice of deciding whether to tell on Troy, his supervisor, or to not tell he committed fraud with his travel and entertainment expense

Once you are part of that culture, and agree to go along with Troy, your sense of integrity and opportunity will start to change into that of the corporate culture. The person might start to think that if I help Troy get away with it, I might be able to do it next time.
Character flaws: if Kristen ends up agreeing, Troy might think that next time they go to another conference, he can get away with passing more personal expenses as business expenses. Which, will only get worse for Kristen, who will end up going along with it by the same rationalization as before.
I think that using the Fraud triangle framework will be an excellent way to explain the reasons why Troy decided to commit fraud in the first place, which is all of them.
1. Pressure- by his wife, due to financial reasons as the trip was more expensive that they expected
2. Opportunity- the corporate culture of “not rocking the boat” and his boss reputation of signing forms without reading or careful