General Hospital's staff aggregated its infection rate data for comparison purposes with four other hospitals in the community. The staff members were aware that the data was flawed. They presented a false perception that General Hospital's postoperative infection rates were lower than those of peer hospitals. The comparison data was published in the local newspaper. The Jones family, believing the data to be correct and concerned about the number of deaths related to hospital-acquired infections, relied on the data in selecting General Hospital as their preferred hospital.

Tasks:

1. Describe how organizational and professional codes of ethics were violated in this case.
2. Describe what role an organization's ethics committee could play in addressing this or similar issues.