Medical Ethics Advisor
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Financial Conflicts Cloud Joint Replacement Technology Study Findings
As an associate editor for an orthopaedic journal, James A. Browne, MD, noticed that an increasing number of economic analyses were being published dealing with new technologies in joint replacement. “These studies, when sponsored by industry or conflicted with financial interests, are very likely to support the sponsor’s new technology — and may be little more than a sophisticated marketing effort,” concludes Browne.
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Barriers to Ethical Informed Consent with Hereditary Cancer Genetic Testing
Demand for hereditary cancer genetic testing is increasing rapidly as the result of advancements in technology and growing awareness of the utility of testing in cancer prevention and treatment. Clinicians have an ethical responsibility to ensure patients can make a fully informed decision about undergoing genetic testing.
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Ethicists Offer Unique Skills to Address Workplace Violence
For hospitals attempting to address workplace violence, the focus typically is on concrete interventions: Providing de-escalation training, adding metal detectors, or bolstering security. What is less well-understood are the ethical implications of violence.
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How Is the Ethics Service Doing? Data Are Necessary to Know
Unlike clinical areas, which are required to track a large number of healthcare quality measures, many ethics programs have little data to demonstrate their effectiveness. One reason is that assessing an ethics consult is not as straightforward as tracking the rate of hospital-acquired infections or surgical complications.
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Effective Ethics Education in Nurse Residency Programs
While directing the nurse residency program at a large midwestern academic teaching hospital, Rebecca West, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, observed that many recent graduates were highly distressed over ethical issues. One new nurse was intensely uncomfortable with completing orders for aggressive treatment for a patient clearly in the process of dying. The nurse did not think to request an ethics consultation. West and colleagues authored a recent paper on the benefits of embedding ethics content in nurse residency programs.
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Some Patients Request Ethics Consults — but for Issues Unrelated to Ethics
At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, ethicists added a “Request Ethics Consultation” button to the electronic patient portal. However, of 74 ethics consult requests made through the portal, just one involved an ethics issue. All of the other requests fell outside the purview of the Ethics Consultation Service, such as people wanting help with hospital resources or care coordination.
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Can Ethicists Be Sued for Recommendations? Attorneys Warn of Potential Legal Risks
The field of clinical ethics continues to evolve, with core competencies, certification, and documentation in the electronic medical record. In a recent paper, Claudia R. Sotomayor, MD, DBe, HEC-C, chief of the Ethics Consultation Service and a clinical ethicist at Georgetown University’s Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics in Washington, DC, and colleagues explored whether the professionalization of ethics consultation exposes those working in this field to the types of liability claims faced by professionals in other fields.
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Ethical Obligations if Patients Have Limited English Proficiency
As a nurse and clinical bioethicist, Melissa Kurtz Uveges, PhD, MA, RN, had a strong desire to facilitate communication with patients with Limited English Proficiency and to provide information in their preferred language.
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Electronic Order Set Facilitates Treatment Withdrawal
At OhioHealth, an electronic order set is used to facilitate withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.
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Most Financial Conflicts of Radiology Guideline Authors Are Undisclosed
Even though the federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act was enacted more than a decade ago, misconceptions persist as to its requirements.