Blowing the Whistle on Fen-Phen: An Exploration of Meritcare's Reporting of Linkages Between Fen-Phen and Valvular Heart Disease‪.‬

This study of the process resulting in the Food and Drug Administration's ban of the diet drug fen-phen following the whistle-blowing of MeritCare, a regional health system in Forgo, North Dakota, expands the concept of whistle-blowing to include external stakeholders who publicly expose problems or errors. The investigation evaluates the conditions surrounding the health system's decision to make public the technician's findings; its whistle-blowing procedures, retaliation fears, perceived need for enhanced credibility, and commitment to an ethic of significant choice are chronicled. The authors conclude that external stakeholders may enact many of the processes found in employee whistle-blowing and that consumer protection appears to be an important value in controversial whistle-blowing decisions. The authors also suggest that traditional notions of whistle-blowing are too narrow. Keywords: whistle-blowing; ethics; health communication; crisis; credibility