Browse Hospital Publication Articles by Topic

Goals of Care Discussion Took Place — But Was it Documented?

When clinicians discuss patient goals and preferences, the discussion needs to be added to the medical record for other healthcare providers to access the information when necessary. Yet the documentation often is missing or incomplete.

Long-Term Care Providers Frequently Face Ethical Dilemmas

Ethical conflicts are common in long-term care facilities, but access to ethics resources often is lacking in these settings. “Access to ethics consultation can reassure everyone involved that the medical director, nurse, or administrator isn’t missing something,” says David N. Hoffman, JD, assistant professor of bioethics at Columbia University.

Some Surrogate Decision-Makers Are Unprepared — or Unaware — of Role

One of the most important goals of advance care planning is to prepare surrogate decision-makers for their role, according to Lingsheng Li, MD, MHS, a research fellow in geriatrics and palliative care at UCSF. Yet Li and colleagues often heard the opposite from surrogates. Many admitted being entirely unprepared for the decision-making process.

Intervention Reduces Distress of Surrogates

Being a surrogate decisionmaker in the intensive care unit (ICU) can have long-term psychological consequences, including post-traumatic stress.

Timing of Ethics Consults Varies by Diagnosis, Language, and Ethnicity

Farshid Dayyani, MD, PhD, joined the ethics committee at University of California Irvine (UCI) Medical Center in 2020. Then, the pandemic hit. Dayyani and colleagues wanted to know if patient characteristics (language, diagnosis, and race/ethnicity) affected the timing of ethics consult requests or the ethics team’s recommendations. There were limited data showing some racial and gender disparities in delays to obtaining ethics consults. The researchers saw the need for a more comprehensive analysis of ethics consults.

Are Ethics Committees Effective? Some Are Being Replaced with Alternative Model

The vast majority of hospitals have ethics committees. Yet these committees vary in terms of their effectiveness, leading some ethicists to conclude it is time for a new approach.

Take on CLABSI Infections with Individualized Education, Leadership Support

Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) are a big problem for patients because they often lead to serious complications such as sepsis. Further, managing such cases can significantly run up the tab for hospitals.

New ED Clinicians Pose Safety Concerns

Newly trained clinicians entering clinical practice are the top patient safety concern in healthcare, according to ECRI’s Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for 2024 Special Report.

Simple Interventions Prove Powerful in Boosting the Acceptance of Preventive Vaccines in the ED

While emergency staff are busier than ever these days, there is no denying that EDs are particularly well-positioned to recognize and address the healthcare needs of underserved patients, many of whom rarely receive preventive care services such as flu vaccinations. Furthermore, new research has shown that, with not much effort or time on the part of clinicians, EDs can double or even triple the percentage of unvaccinated patients who receive their flu vaccinations — a move that likely prevents more expensive, future healthcare use for some of these patients.

Some ED Patients Are Suicidal but Present with Unrelated Complaints

Many youths who die by suicide interacted with the healthcare system in the year before death. This raises the question: Should ED providers be screening all youth for suicide risk, regardless of their chief complaint?