CEC 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 Consult 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 consult service within University of Missouri Health Care is coordinated by Center for Health Ethics 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 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 students. They participate concerning the processes the committee and consult services use in assisting the patient population, hospital staff, and the community-at- large in dealing with ethical issues and concerns.
The members of the Ethics Consult Service team are also members of the Clinical Ethics Committee. Members come from departments on campus as well as the surrounding community are represented in. Members include: physicians, nurses, administrators, chaplains, social workers, psychologists, philosophers, ethicists, theologians, attorneys, fellows, residents and medical students.
