Handbook for Health Care Ethics Committees

Book info: Handbook for Health Care Ethics Committees (Paperback, 488 pages) – Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021. Language: English.

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.

Review

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. Review

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

"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."

Book Description

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

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.