The Ethisphere Institute released its 17th annual list of the "World's Most Ethical Companies," recognizing several healthcare organizations for their "world-class approach" to ethics and integrity.

Methodology

To identify the world's most ethical companies for 2023, Ethisphere used its proprietary Ethics Quotient (EQ) process to capture and codify the practices of participating organizations, using more than 200 data points across five categories:

• Ethics and compliance program, which accounts for 35% of an organization's overall score
• Culture of ethics, which accounts for 20% of the overall score
• Environmental and societal impact, which accounts for 20% of the overall score
• Governance, which accounts for 15% of the overall score
• Leadership and reputation, which accounts for 10% of the overall score

This year, Ethisphere recognized 135 organizations across 46 industries "for their unwavering commitment to business integrity." Overall, there were eight first-time honorees and six 6 honorees that have made the list every year since the list was first released in 2006.

Notable 2023 healthcare honorees

Ethisphere recognized healthcare companies across seven categories, including health insurance, healthcare products, healthcare providers, integrated healthcare systems, medical devices, non-profit healthcare providers, and pharmaceuticals.

From the health insurance industry, Ethisphere recognized Blue Shield of California, Cambia Health Solutions, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, and Health Care Service Corporation.

In the healthcare products industry, Henry Schein and Medtronic were named among the honorees.

Covenant Health, Northwell Health, and University Hospitals were among the honorees in the healthcare providers category. In addition, Kaiser Permanente and UPMC were recognized as the most ethical integrated healthcare systems and Cleveland Clinic was recognized as an ethical non-profit healthcare provider.

Honorees in the medical device industry included Edwards Lifesciences.

And Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Zoetis were honorees in the pharmaceutical industry.

To see the full list of honorees, click here.

(Blackman, HealthLeaders, 3/13; Kayser, Becker's Hospital Review, 3/13; "World's Most Ethical Companies" list, accessed 3/14; "World's Most Ethical Companies" methodology, accessed 3/14)