Interesting story: http://www.twincities.com/ci_10623704
When doctors, nurses, patients and relatives are fighting over what to do next, hospital ethics committees are usually called in to calm the frayed nerves and find a just solution.
Now, some Twin Cities ethicists believe the hospital groups must accept a bigger challenge: establishing justice in a health care system that too often discriminates against the poorest and neediest patients.
"We have to start thinking about (the problems in) health care more expansively," said Don Postema, an ethics consultant at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.
Postema is among a group of speakers in St. Paul today who will discuss the appropriate role of medical ethics committees in health care reform. In some ways, the individual decisions of ethics committees have always shaped broader health care policies. But today's forum, sponsored by HealthPartners, is more about initiating change than waiting for opportunities to do so.
A classic ethics case would be a dispute between doctors and relatives over when to discontinue life support of a critically ill patient. Or when a patient refuses care that a doctor considers life-saving.
Questions these committees don't engage in as often include whether nonprofit hospitals are being true to their charitable missions or when hospitals should help patients who can't afford medicine.
"Medical ethics has regarded those as policy questions rather than as ethics questions," said Dr. Steven Miles, a bioethics professor at the University of Minnesota. "But they really are ethics questions."
Taking on the social, medical and political problems in health care might seem daunting for ethics committees, which are used to getting immediate results in each complaint they review. However, Miles said they should still try. He offered the example of media "truth squads," which, one by one, point out fabrications in political advertisements and are starting to make a collective difference in election campaigns.
"I don't think that can be underestimated," he said.
Postema said the ethics leaders at Regions already have tackled some broader policy issues. They worked with the LifeSource organ procurement agency to develop standards for organ donation when patients suffer cardiac death (and not just brain death) and helped develop new standards governing financial relationships between doctors and drug companies.
The ethics committee also responded to frustrations from Regions' emergency room doctors by encouraging the hospital to give initial drug supplies to ER patients when they can't afford them.
"I happen to think," Postema said, "that it re-energizes ethics committees."
Discuss this story here http://www.ultimatenurse.com/forum/f5/ethic-s-place-healthcare-33927/#post61289
When doctors, nurses, patients and relatives are fighting over what to do next, hospital ethics committees are usually called in to calm the frayed nerves and find a just solution.
Now, some Twin Cities ethicists believe the hospital groups must accept a bigger challenge: establishing justice in a health care system that too often discriminates against the poorest and neediest patients.
"We have to start thinking about (the problems in) health care more expansively," said Don Postema, an ethics consultant at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.
Postema is among a group of speakers in St. Paul today who will discuss the appropriate role of medical ethics committees in health care reform. In some ways, the individual decisions of ethics committees have always shaped broader health care policies. But today's forum, sponsored by HealthPartners, is more about initiating change than waiting for opportunities to do so.
A classic ethics case would be a dispute between doctors and relatives over when to discontinue life support of a critically ill patient. Or when a patient refuses care that a doctor considers life-saving.
Questions these committees don't engage in as often include whether nonprofit hospitals are being true to their charitable missions or when hospitals should help patients who can't afford medicine.
"Medical ethics has regarded those as policy questions rather than as ethics questions," said Dr. Steven Miles, a bioethics professor at the University of Minnesota. "But they really are ethics questions."
Taking on the social, medical and political problems in health care might seem daunting for ethics committees, which are used to getting immediate results in each complaint they review. However, Miles said they should still try. He offered the example of media "truth squads," which, one by one, point out fabrications in political advertisements and are starting to make a collective difference in election campaigns.
"I don't think that can be underestimated," he said.
Postema said the ethics leaders at Regions already have tackled some broader policy issues. They worked with the LifeSource organ procurement agency to develop standards for organ donation when patients suffer cardiac death (and not just brain death) and helped develop new standards governing financial relationships between doctors and drug companies.
The ethics committee also responded to frustrations from Regions' emergency room doctors by encouraging the hospital to give initial drug supplies to ER patients when they can't afford them.
"I happen to think," Postema said, "that it re-energizes ethics committees."
Discuss this story here http://www.ultimatenurse.com/forum/f5/ethic-s-place-healthcare-33927/#post61289