Medical Ethics Advisor
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New Guidance on Ethics of Providers’ Internet Searches on Patients
Despite multiple ethical concerns raised regarding providers searching for online information about their patients, specific recommendations have been lacking.
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Ethics of Virtual Visits: In-Person Visits Declined 33% in First Year
Some accountable care organizations are replacing in-person visits with lower-cost virtual visits. Using data from more than 35,000 patients from 2014 to 2017 within a Massachusetts-based ACO, researchers found that the use of virtual visits reduced in-person visits by 33%.
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Almost One-Third of Proxies Do Not Know Patient’s Current Code Status
Is a person’s goal to be cured, to live long enough to see a particular event, to be comfortable, or something else? Researchers wanted to know how many ICU proxies believed they knew the answer. They also wondered how many proxies felt confident that they knew what limits their loved one would place on pursuing that goal — would the patient choose not to resuscitate?
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Analysis of Serious Ethical Violations Uncovered Failure to Identify Egregious Wrongdoing
Often, training is viewed as a way to stop ethical violations. But a recent analysis of 280 cases suggests this is not the answer. Nearly all cases of serious ethical violations involved repeated instances of intentional wrongdoing that went undetected.
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Policies Can Set Boundaries, Ensure Ethical Discharges
Often, clinicians perceive the discharge plan is focused on the question of “What are we obliged to do?” instead of “What should we do?”
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How Effective Is Ethics? Ask Clinicians, Examine Processes
Researchers found some unexpected variations between the requests for ethics consults and the retrospective reports from the clinicians who made the request.
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Much Common Ground Between Ethics and Hospital Leadership
Increasingly, hospital leaders are recognizing that ethics expertise “can help in the boardroom as well as at the bedside,” experts say.
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Patients With LVADs More Likely to Die in Hospitals
LVADs are becoming increasingly common, and researchers say they expect to see more patients with LVADs dying at home.
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Study: Many POLST Forms Completed by Surrogates
Surrogate preferences on Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment forms were 60% less likely to choose “all treatment” than patients who made their own decisions, found a new study.
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Clinicians Believe Chaplains Helpful — But Call on Them Infrequently
One study found that chaplain consults were rare, mainly reserved for dying patients, and usually occurred in the last 24 hours of life or even after death.