Ethics committees: is there a role for them in the laboratory?
Ethics committees are commonly found in United States health-care institutions. As multidisciplinary committees within the medical staff structure, they are active in education, policy development, and case consultation. Clinical pathology laboratories face a number of ethically sensitive issues, including the confidentiality of sensitive data, problems of patient-caregiver or caregiver-patient transfer of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and conflicts about allocating scarce resources such as blood. Ethics committees can be an important resource to clinical laboratorians seeking to develop ethically defensible policies and procedures.
Povar
G J
GJ
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000635:transmission; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D004219:District of Columbia; D017041:Ethics Committees / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004991:Ethics, Institutional; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000592:standards; D006745:Hospital Bed Capacity, 300 to 499; D006801:Humans; D015274:Interdepartmental Relations; D007755:Laboratories, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D012380:Role