Clinical Ethics Committee Mission
Patients, families, surrogates, and providers are often faced with difficult health care decisions. Many of these decisions have complex medical, nursing, legal, psychological, religious, and social dimensions that can lead to conflict or uncertainty. In response, University of Missouri Health Care has established the Clinical Ethics Committee and Clinical Ethics Consultation Service. Its mission is to assist patients, families, and health care team members in sorting through the ethical aspects of making difficult health care decisions.
About the Committee
This well-defined committee and consultation service within University of Missouri Health Care is coordinated by the Center for Health Ethics faculty and staff and is continuously available to both academic and private sectors. It actively strives to foster a common dialogue and understanding for ethical decision-making within the health care community at large.
The Clinical Ethics Committee meets monthly to discuss various hospital policies, consultation reports, and provide a forum for discussion of some of today’s ethical issues and challenges. The committee meetings provide an educational opportunity for faculty, staff, resident physicians, and students. Members participate concerning the processes the committee and consultation services use in assisting the patient population, hospital staff, and the community-at-large in dealing with ethical issues and concerns.
Team members of the Clinical Ethics Consultation Service are also members of the Clinical Ethics Committee. Additional committee members come from departments on campus as well as the surrounding communities. Members include physicians, nurses, administrators, chaplains, social workers, psychologists, philosophers, ethicists, theologians, attorneys, fellows, residents, and medical students.
