title: A Pilot Evaluation of Portfolios for Quality Attestation of Clinical Ethics Consultants.
abstract: Although clinical ethics consultation is a high-stakes endeavor with an increasing prominence in health care systems, progress in developing standards for quality is challenging. In this article, we describe the results of a pilot project utilizing portfolios as an evaluation tool. We found that this approach is feasible and resulted in a reasonably wide distribution of scores among the 23 submitted portfolios that we evaluated. We discuss limitations and implications of these results, and suggest that this is a significant step on the pathway to an eventual certification process for clinical ethics consultants.
authors.affiliation: a New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Center.
authors.forename: Joseph J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Fins
authors.affiliation: b Cleveland Clinic.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kodish
authors.affiliation: c Kaiser Permanente Orange County and American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.
authors.forename: Felicia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cohn
authors.affiliation: d National Institutes of Health.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Danis
authors.affiliation: e Medical College of Wisconsin.
authors.forename: Arthur R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Derse
authors.affiliation: f New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation and NYU Langone Medical Center.
authors.forename: Nancy Neveloff
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Dubler
authors.affiliation: b Cleveland Clinic.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Goulden
authors.affiliation: g Loyola University Chicago.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuczewski
authors.affiliation: b Cleveland Clinic.
authors.forename: Mary Beth
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Mercer
authors.affiliation: h National Center for Ethics in Health Care, Department of Veterans Affairs.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Pearlman
authors.affiliation: b Cleveland Clinic.
authors.forename: Martin L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: i University of Maryland School of Nursing and School of Law.
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tarzian
authors.affiliation: j Case Western Reserve University.
authors.forename: Stuart J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Youngner
mesh_terms: D002568:Certification / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D026822:Ethicists / Q000592:standards*; D033061:Ethics Consultation / Q000592:standards*; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011361:Professional Competence / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards; D014481:United States
keywords: clinical ethics consultation; ethics consultants; portfolio evaluation; quality assessment