Hospital
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POLST Forms Not Always Used as Intended, Rarely Accessed in EDs
Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) forms have been implemented widely to reduce unwanted, aggressive treatment for patients with serious illness at the end of life. However, most studies on POLST have been limited to nursing home residents or among decedents. Researchers set out to better understand how POLST forms are used in the hospital, and whether treatment limitations on POLST influence the intensity of treatment hospital patients received.
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Families’ Surprising Opinions on End-of-Life ICU Care
Intensive care units may be associated with poor-quality end-of-life care. A recent study’s findings call that assumption into question — at least from the family’s perspective.
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Ethicists Offer Much-Needed Support to Clinicians with Moral Distress
The issue of moral distress is nothing new in healthcare, but the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the problem. Read on to learn how ethicists can help colleagues sort through unusual feelings.
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Disciplinary Action, Terminations, Gag Orders: ‘Avalanche Effect’
When the COVID-19 pandemic started, hospitals suddenly had to determine how to ration scarce critical care resources. Hospitals could not change the fact they were caught without enough personal protective equipment (PPE) and could not immediately obtain more of it. However, they could control whether they responded ethically. Some hospitals imposed gag orders on staff, barring them from voicing concerns about PPE publicly. Nurses and physicians have been disciplined or threatened with termination for reporting inadequate PPE on social media.
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Making Critical Care Triage Policies Transparent to Patients, Community
Certain hospitals are including information on their critical care triage policies in admission packets to explain how care or supplies will be allocated if rationing becomes necessary. Some clinicians feel ethically obligated to inform everyone up front of the possibility. Others think it is better to do so only if and when it becomes necessary.
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Clinical Ethicists ‘Doubling Down’ on Efforts as Hospitals Adjust to New Normal
The COVID-19 pandemic made ethics committees players of central importance. Experts highlight areas around which ethicists can shape the conversation.
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Investigators Uncover More Troubling Data About the Adverse Health Effects of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages
Recent study revealed women who consume just one such beverage per day were at a much higher risk for stroke and cardiovascular disease.
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Fauci Taps the Brakes on Widespread Reopening
Warning of the risk of opening up the economy too quickly, infectious disease expert said the United States could see a painful resurgence of COVID-19.
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One COVID-19 Patient, More than 40 Healthcare Workers Exposed
An unsuspected case of COVID-19 — hospitalized as the pandemic was beginning in the United States — exposed 43 healthcare workers and caused what are thought to be the first occupational infections with the virus.
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Regional Collaboration May Improve the Ethical Response to Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is raising profound ethical questions, including whether different socioeconomic groups and rural facilities are receiving equitable care and resources as their better-positioned counterparts.