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Who Are "Unrepresented" Patients and What Count as "Important" Medical Decisions for Them?
1Professor emeritus of ethics, social philosophy, and professional and health care ethics in the Department of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago in Illinois, and also an associate member of the professional staff, a member of the institutional ethics committee, and a consulting ethicist for NorthShore University HealthSystem as well as chair of the Steering Committee of the Unrepresented Patients Project for Illinois.
Abstract:
Unrepresented patients are hospital patients who lack decision-making capacity but have no advance directive and no one to serve as a legally authorized surrogate. An important first step in efforts to change the law and develop organizational policies that help respond to these patients' needs is determining which patients should be considered unrepresented and which aspects of hospital care should receive attention. This article proposes working definitions of unrepresented patient and important medical decisions based on the work of one statewide initiative, the Unrepresented Patients Project for Illinois.