Prita Mulyasari vs. Omni International Hospital Defamation against freedom of expression in respect to Business Ethics & Law Brief Summary Prita Mulyasari, was patient suspected Dengue Fever in Omni International Hospital sued for Defamation Case due her openly distributed moaning and disappointments e-mail to relatives and friends in mailing list, and imposed kept in detention based on breaching Information and Electronic Transaction (ITE) Law Chronology and Facts
It begun at around 8:30pm on Tuesday August 7, 2008 when Prita Mulyasari visited OMNI International Hospital Bintaro to check her condition that suffer of fever and headache and by medical check stated her thrombosis was 27,000 so critical that made her had to stay to be inpatient for further medication treatment. In the morning, Dr. Hengky Gosal, Sp. PD admitted there’s revision to lab test that Thrombosis is 181,000 instead of 27,000 as earlier stated without any medical record given to Prita.
After few days under hospital treatment as Prita condition worsen and felt mistreated adding by insufficient information provided, she left the hospital to seek another hospital for 2nd opinion and found that she’s got mumps illness. By the fact, then Prita conveyed her complaints to OMNI International Hospital that handled by Dr. Grace as Customer Service Manager. As of Prita confession, the responds was inadequate and seems to be falsifying the data as her request for the 27,000 thrombosis report was never been given.
In her moaning and disappointments to OMNI International Hospital services, Prita then wrote an e-mail sent to mailing list sharing her experiences while she was having the treatment, which then become trigger to a defamation sue by OMNI International Hospital. (Suara Pembaca Detik, Omni gained patient by falsifying lab result, Aug 30, 2008, approx 3 pages) Head of the YPKKI, a Non Government Organization focusing on Health Services and Consumers, Marius Widjajarta said his organization had received 540 malpractice reports filed from January 1999 to November 2008, but none has eached the court. Legal Representative from OMNI Hospital commented that they solved most of the case through simple mediation. (Jakarta Post, OMNI under fire, November 6, 2009, approx 1 page) Initial investigation by police, Prita imposed to become suspect of violating Defamation Article No. 311 verse 1 of Civil Criminal Law, then added by District Prosecutors that Prita imposed of breaching Clause No. 27 verse 3 of Information and Transaction Electronic Law with the sentence up to 6 years imprisonment, and by that had to be kept in detention. Jakarta Post, Blame game over misuse of law, June 5, 2009, approx 2 pages) Judicial process imposed to Prita due breaching of ITE Law and Defamation Law: (Jakarta Post, Top Court favors Prita, Sept 10, 2010, approx 1 page) 1. Detained for 20 days in the initial investigation of breaching ITE Law 2. District court imposed Prita with fine at Rp. 340 Million 3. In appeal to Higher Court, the fine to Prita decreasing to Rp. 240 Million, this is when the public from support outburst through mailing list and Facebook and led to the movement ‘Coin for Prita’ 4. Further appeal to Supreme Court, OMNI had demanded for Rp. billion, which then by Supreme Court struck down and free her of the obligation to pay damages for defamation Later, Prita’s lawyer, Slamet Yuwono, claimed he saw a memo on District prosecutors’ office that Omni would provide all employees at the office free medical check-ups and pap smears at the office’s hall on May 18, 2009. The announcement was signed by the head of the office. Then Attorney General’s Office spokesman Jasman Panjaitan said the free medical check-up was part of Omni’s “social responsibility program”. (Jakarta Post, Tangerang Prosecutor named bribery suspect, Feb 13, 2011, approx 1 page)
Analysis A. Integrity and Accountability Integrity is a basic fundamental requirement for any means of developing business, that drives people doing things right no matter other see it or not. In simple way, accountability means taking deserved credit and deserved blame (Johnson & Ridley, Element of Ethics, Palgrave 2008, p9). The first statement after reviewing the case: what happen with OMNI Hospital’s Integrity, very suspicious to know that they don’t want to give the Lab Test result that then led people assumption of OMNI falsifying its own lab result for the sake of achieving target revenue.
Furthermore if only OMNI Hospital take the accountability of the case from the beginning, OMNI can still fix their reputation, and can avoid the cost of court process along with further possible fine impact. In most of cases, victims will be feeling better with honest and sincere regret and apology, and a serious commitment to recover the problem. In this case OMNI totally ignored their accountability in the name of upfront profit taking but forgetting that the increasing problem of this ignorance has increased their operational cost for the court process, yet putting reputation to very low level
B. Ethics Code If Moral is determined as principle of human behavior that universal and timeless, Ethics would be interpretation and expression of moral principle in specific context related to profession and it may develop over time in response to emerging with professional challenges. (Johnson & Ridley, Element of Ethics, Palgrave 2008, p189). With 540 reports upon malpractice against OMNI Hospital, explained no Ethics Code established nor enforced within organization that led OMNI Hospital of doing mistake repeatedly, a proof of incompetence Ethics Leadership.
The District Court also shown how conflict of interest was so obvious by taking benefit of free medical check up in OMNI Hospital where in the same time having case in the office C. Recommendation Recommendation would be for both, to OMNI Hospital as company organization and to Prita as subject victim. For OMNI Hospital: 1. Omni needs to establish the Code of Conduct internally and generate gradual training and awareness to employees and management 2. Apply enforcement to ensure the Code of Conduct implemented 3.
Provide appropriate training for Customer Services and Complaints Division, as this area will highly impact organization images to public, the result will rectify OMNI reputation 4. Be very careful involve in activities that might arise suspicious to the act of Conflict of Interest To Prita Mulyasari: 1. In any means, beware of expressing any negatives of someone over internet, ensure that disclaimer in place 2. Take legal way to complaint through YPKKI, a Non Government Organization focusing on Health Services and Consumers as mediation to resolve the issue
By doing so, OMNI expected to recover their reputation gradually and accredited by public as a favor and trusted hospital which at the end will increase the revenue, and the other side for Prita she doesn’t have to be References 1. Jakarta Post, 2010, Top court favors Prita over OMNI: Available from: http://www. thejakartapost. com/news/2010/10/09/top-court-favors-prita-over-omni. html Accessed Feb 15, 2011] 2. Suara Pembaca Detik, 2008, OMNI gained costumer by falsifying data. Available from : http://suarapembaca. detik. om/read/2008/08/30/111736/997265/283/rs-omni-dapatkan-pasien-dari-hasil-lab-fiktif [Accessed Feb 15, 2011] 3. Jakarta Post, 2009, Blame Game Starts Over Misuse Law Prita Mulyasari, . Available from : http://www. thejakartapost. com/news/2009/06/05/blame-game-starts-over-misuse-law-prita-mulyasari-case. html [Accessed Feb 17, 2011] 4. Jakarta Post, 2011, Tangerang Prosecutor named bribery suspect Available from: http://www. thejakartapost. com/news/2011/02/13/tangerang-prosecutor-named-bribery-suspect. html [Accessed Feb 17, 2011] 5. Jakarta Post, 2009, Omni under fire again as a plaintiff reports
