Developing and testing a checklist to enhance quality in clinical ethics consultation

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Clinical Ethics
• Medical Consultation

Background:

• Checklists are established quality improvement tools across industries.
• Their application in clinical ethics consultation remains under-evaluated.
• This study addresses the need to assess checklist efficacy in this specialized field.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a checklist in enhancing clinical ethics consultations.
• To improve consultation quality through process step reminders.
• To standardize the ethics consultation process and create an educational tool.

Main Methods:

• A checklist was developed via literature review and expert consensus.
• A six-month pilot test was conducted at a large academic medical system.
• A 10-item survey assessed consultant perceptions of the checklist's utility.

Main Results:

• 68% of respondents found the checklist helpful or very helpful.
• Novice consultants perceived greater utility compared to experts.
• The checklist demonstrated potential as an educational resource.

Conclusions:

• The checklist shows promise for improving ethics consultation quality and consistency.
• It can serve as a valuable educational tool for training and professional development.
• Further testing in diverse healthcare settings is warranted to confirm generalizability.