Effectiveness of an ethics consultation service

Area of Science:

• Clinical Ethics
• Family Medicine
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Ethics consultation is an emerging clinical service, predominantly within internal medicine.
• Limited research exists on the outcomes of ethics consultations.
• The impact of a family practice perspective on ethics consultation has not been explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of establishing an ethics consultation service within a university hospital's Department of Family Medicine.
• To evaluate the impact and physician perceptions of this service during its initial year.

Main Methods:

• An ethics consultation service was implemented in the Department of Family Medicine in 1990.
• Data were collected on consultations provided during the first year of operation.
• Attending physicians completed questionnaires to evaluate the service's effectiveness.

Main Results:

• Ethics consultations were provided for 46 patients across five clinical departments.
• Over 90% of attending physicians found consultations valuable for clarifying ethical issues, team education, and decision-making confidence.
• Significant changes in patient management occurred in 36% of cases following consultations.

Conclusions:

• An ethics consultation service can be successfully established within a family medicine department at a university hospital.
• This service can effectively provide consultations to physicians in various medical specialties.