Handbook for Health Care Ethics Committees

by Linda Farber Post, Jeffrey Blustein

Overview

How can dedicated health care ethics committees increase their effectiveness and demonstrate their value as essential moral resources for their organizations?

Among the most effective and increasingly valued resources in the health care decision-making process is the institutional ethics committee. The Joint Commission (TJC) accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations in the United States, including hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies. As a condition of accreditation, TJC requires health care organizations to have available a standing multidisciplinary ethics committee, composed of physicians, nurses, attorneys, ethicists, administrators, and interested lay citizens. Many of these committees are well meaning but may lack the information, experience, skills, and formal background in bioethics needed to effectively address the range and complexity of the ethical issues that arise in clinical and organizational settings.

Handbook for Health Care Ethics Committees was conceived in 2007 to address the myriad responsibilities assumed by ethics committees. Using sample cases and accessible language, Linda Farber Post and Jeffrey Blustein explored applied bioethics, including informed consent and refusal, decision making and decisional capacity, truth telling, care at the beginning and end of life, palliation, justice in and access to health care services, and organizational ethics.

In the third edition, Post and Blustein have thoroughly updated and reorganized the content and expanded the scope of the material, with special attention to changes in the health care landscape since the second edition was published in 2015. They also focus on communication between and among patients, care providers, and families, the demands of professionalism, the essential role that ethics committees can and should play, and how their effectiveness and value can be assessed. An entirely new chapter examines research ethics. The book also addresses the challenging ethical issues raised by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This guide remains an essential resource for all health care ethics committee and their members.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421442341
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	11/23/2021
Edition description:	third edition
Pages:	488
Sales rank:	739,935
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.01(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Linda Farber Post is a clinical ethicist and educator, formerly at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Jeffrey Blustein is a professor of bioethics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a clinical ethicist at both the Einstein and Moses Divisions of Montefiore Medical Center.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I. Curriculum for Ethics Committees
1. Ethical Foundations of Clinical Practice
2. Decision Making and Decisional Capacity in Adults
3. Informed Consent and Refusal
4. Truth Telling: Disclosure, Privacy, and Confidentiality
5. Special Decision-Making Concerns of Minors
6. Ethical Issues in Reproduction
7. Special Decision-Making Concerns of the Elderly
8. Ethical Issues in the Care of Disabled Persons
9. End-of-Life Issues
10. Palliation
11. Justice, Health, and Access to Health Care
12. Organizational Ethics
13. Ethics Committees and Research, by Julia Kolak
II. The Creation, Nature, and Functioning of Ethics Committees
14. Profile of Ethics Committees
15. Clinical Ethics Consultation
16. Ethics Education
17. Sample Clinical Cases
18. Sample Policies and Procedures
III. Organizational Codes of Ethics
IV. Key Legal Cases, Legislation, and State Action
V. An Ethics Committee Meeting
Epilogue: Ethics in the Context of a Global Pandemic
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Hands down the best introduction to clinical bioethics, period. I wish every ethics committee member would read it, and it makes an excellent textbook in introductory bioethics courses as well.
—Alex Rajczi, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy, Deborah and Kenneth Novack Professor of Ethics and Leadership, and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College

Kenneth Prager

A practical, readable, and informative guide, Handbook for Health Care Ethics Committees is full of well-chosen cases typical of the ones dealt with by ethics committees, sound scholarship, and analytical, lucid discussions.

Alex Rajczi

Hands down the best introduction to clinical bioethics, period. I wish every ethics committee member would read it, and it makes an excellent textbook in introductory bioethics courses as well.

Editorial Reviews

Drawing from considerable expertise and experience, the authors write in a clear and engaging style . . . Essentially, the handbook creates a framework of resources for those committees assessing their own work. The authors serve their audience well and this book is a valuable addition to the library of every healthcare ethics committee.
—Doody's Review Service

Straightforward writing, and generous use of case studies make it a book that any non-specialist with interest in the field would find compelling.
—American Reference Books Annual

A strong work based on meticulous research and the wisdom of years of experience . . . Highly recommended.
—Choice

Thick with useful information, this multifaceted handbook relays dispatches from the health care front . . . The authors have indeed met their goal and provided a needed resource.
—Metapsychology

A very useful background tool for introductory instruction in bioethics . . . Does an excellent job.
—Journal of Long Term Home Health Care

This easily readable, ethically astute book will be extremely useful to the providers in all clinical fields, not just those in pure medicine. It is a must-carry for all libraries covering health care services and human rights.
—Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved

From the Publisher

Thick with useful information, this multifaceted handbook relays dispatches from the health care front . . . The authors have indeed met their goal and provided a needed resource.

Metapsychology

A very useful background tool for introductory instruction in bioethics . . . Does an excellent job.

Journal of Long Term Home Health Care

This easily readable, ethically astute book will be extremely useful to the providers in all clinical fields, not just those in pure medicine. It is a must-carry for all libraries covering health care services and human rights.

Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved

A strong work based on meticulous research and the wisdom of years of experience . . . Highly recommended.

Choice

Straightforward writing, and generous use of case studies make it a book that any non-specialist with interest in the field would find compelling.

American Reference Books Annual

Reviewer: Barbara Hinze, PhD (c)(Saint Louis University)
Description: Due to considerable demands on their time, healthcare ethics committee members may sometimes find it challenging to acquire additional education and skills requisite for fashioning their committee into a more effective resource for their institution. In light of this challenge, the authors have written this book.
Purpose: Intending this as a handbook, the authors guide committee members regarding particular ethical issues as well as committee responsibilities.
Audience: Drawing from considerable expertise and experience, the authors write in a clear and engaging style. Their thorough coverage of issues and responsibilities should be helpful for those who are relatively new to the work of healthcare ethics committees.
Features: The authors outline ethics consultation models, consider cases, and discuss the usefulness of white papers, memoranda, guidelines, and protocols. Also helpful are the samples of policies and procedures, examples of institutional codes of ethics, and references to legal cases. Furthermore, the authors provide an insightful illustration of how an ideal committee meeting might be conducted.
Assessment: It might be noted that the handbook does reflect the authors' preference for a principlist approach to bioethics, as well as a tendency to exaggerate consensus among bioethicists. An example of this is the authors' position on the moral rights to healthcare. Readers should be aware that this book, as any work of this nature, is not completely neutral in its approach to how particular issues should be framed. Although not intended as a one-stop reference or textbook for healthcare ethics committees, this is an excellent starting point. It is particularly helpful for those who might not have easy access to other sources of bioethics expertise. Essentially, the handbook creates a framework of resources for those committees assessing their own work. The authors serve their audience well and this book is a valuable addition to the library of every healthcare ethics committee.

Doody's Review Service

This easily readable, ethically astute book will be extremely useful to the providers in all clinical fields, not just those in pure medicine. It is a must-carry for all libraries covering health care services and human rights.

Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved - Fahmida Hussain

A very useful background tool for introductory instruction in bioethics... Does an excellent job.

Journal of Long Term Home Health Care - Marshall B. Kapp

Thick with useful information, this multifaceted handbook relays dispatches from the health care front... The authors have indeed met their goal and provided a needed resource.

Metapsychology - Larry D. Hultgren