Medical Ethics Advisor – March 1, 2008
March 1, 2008
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Doctor-patient hugs: Is non-clinical touch a line you should cross?
Have you hugged a patient today? Whether your answer is yes or no, there will be disagreement about the wisdom of your choice. -
Ethics center to standardize ethics consultations
The U.S. Veterans Health Administration (VA) National Center for Ethics in Health Care launched a major ethics integration initiative in 2007, including a new component that seeks to standardize and evaluate the quality of ethics consultations. -
Ethics of care extend through discharge
Hospital staff have a plethora of ethical duties while their patients are hospitalized under their care, but clinicians need to remember that their duty to provide ethical care extends right up to and even beyond the point of discharge, says Emory University ethicist John Banja, PhD. -
Nurses learn to ‘speak the language of ethics'
Some of the language of ethics doesn't come naturally to nurses, according to a nurse-ethicist. But an initiative by Indianapolis-based Clarian Health aims to make ethics training and discussion second nature to the 5,000 nurses working there. -
Doctors believe in error disclosure, just don't do it
Doctors appear to disclose actual medical errors to their hospitals at a lower rate than their views on disclosure would indicate, according to a University of Iowa researcher. -
News Brief
Following the deaths of two patients at specialty hospitals owned by physicians in both cases, the patients suffered complications following surgery, no physician was on duty, and the specialty hospitals called 9-1-1 to respond the Senate Finance Committee asked the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to evaluate patient care at 109 physician-owned specialty hospitals in the United States, and the OIG report, released in January, has raised concerns for patient safety.