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The National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) has issued a "call to action" and position statement outlining that organizations expectation that palliative care will become available to all patients in critical care settings.
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Access to Palliative Care in Critical Care Settings: A Call to Action
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One health care provider is using its approach to ethics to combat what one ethics leader in the organization calls "a perfect storm" of intense regulatory scrutiny, increased litigation, a large population of chronically ill patients in hospitals for long periods of time, and public mistrust of the health care system.
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Every study participant has seen some variation of this assurance in informed consent documents: "You are free to participate in this research or to withdraw at any time without penalty or loss of benefits you are entitled to receive."
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As with many professional positions, personal referrals from other health care providers are what typically lead to an opportunity to serve on the ethics committee at Beaumont Hospitals in Royal Oak, MI.
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Members of the American Psychological Association in Washington, DC, have approved a resolution to prohibit psychologists from working in settings where "persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law or the U.S. Constitution."
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Medical ethics is at the center of a case in the state of North Carolina, whereby the state Department of Corrections is at odds with the North Carolina Medical Board (NCMB) over physician participation in executions.
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The above quote from an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in June demonstrates the challenges that physicians can have with certain patients who, in everyday language, refuse to give up the fight to continue with their life, even if a prognosis suggests that is not possible.
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Occasionally, reports of physician misconduct while a patient is sedated make headlines sometimes locally, sometimes nationally, and sometimes internationally.
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Editor's note: In the August 2008 issue, Medical Ethics Advisor reported on a new requirement by The Joint Commission to become effective January 2009 that hospitals monitor and correct so-called "disruptive behaviors" by health care professionals at their institutions. This month, MEA spoke with Laurie Zoloth at Northwestern University's Center for Bioethics, Science and Society. To discuss how physicians should address either incompetent or other bad behavior by other physicians.
