LETTER
Ethics Committees, Due Process, and Compassion
John La Puma, MD, and
David Schiedermayer, MD
1 September 1994 | Volume 121 Issue 5 | Pages 386-387
TO THE EDITOR:
Better research is needed on the quality, processes, and outcomes of ethics consultation, whether done by individual ethics consultants or by committee members. A recent article on ethics committees and an accompanying editorial [1, 2] support this view, although neither suggests quality standards that ethics consultants should be expected to meet.
We have researched potential standards of quality in ethics consultation [3, 4] and have developed measurable indicators oriented to the patient or surrogate and to the provider. Our quality standards are high, in line with an era of unprecedented assessment and accountability. As practical clinical ethics changes with the patient, so they must with the times.
1. Fleetwood J, Unger SS. Institutional ethics committees and the shield of immunity. Ann Intern Med. 1994; 120:320-5.
2. Fletcher JC, Hoffman DE. Ethics committees: time to experiment with standards. Ann Intern Med. 1994; 120:335-8.
3. Anzia DJ, La Puma J. Quality care and clinical ethics. QRB Qual Rev Bull. 1992; 18:21-3.
4. La Puma J, Schiedermayer D. Ethics Consultation: A Practical Guide. Boston: Jones and Bartlett; 1994.
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