Ethics committees have become the major approach in tackling ethical issues in health care organizations and settings in the US. Ethics consultations can be of different forms. There is the personal ethics consultant and the capacity building form of consultation. Ethics committees play a major role in in developing, establishing and evaluating of an organization’s policy ( Svehla & Anderson-Shaw, 2006) . Ethics committees provide expertise in case of challenging issues that are ethics related. An ethics committee could for example start a policy in the field of provision of end of life care to patients or advocate for a review of current cases in a certain aspect of care in the organization.
However, the role of these committees goes beyond that of expertise in challenging circumstances. Ethics committees are an important part in offering direction and maintaining the moral aspects of a health care setting or hospital (Sussman, 2005). They offer support to health care organization’s staff and administrators in the application of ethical practice and encourage moral thinking and judgment. This is important in understanding the beliefs, views and anxieties of other people. The committees are also involved in cases of technology inappropriateness, association between health care personnel, social aspects values and rights that should be accorded to patients (Sussman, 2005).
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Confidentiality is one type of conflicts that health care administrators may encounter when trying to manage ethical issues ( Svehla & Anderson-Shaw, 2006) . Under which conditions information that is confidential should be released is a common challenge that most administrators face when dealing with patients, staff and businesses. Ethical aspects are often involved in the dissemination of confidential data. Health care administrators have a role to protect confidential information ( Svehla & Anderson-Shaw, 2006) . The dissemination of confidential data for whatever intentions may bring consequences of individual and business liability. Ethics committees offer guidance on how to deal with such issues in order to ensure that the confidentiality and other ethics related issues are catered for.
References
Sussman, A. (2005). Practitioner Application: First Principles: Substantive Ethics for Healthcare Organizations. Journal of Healthcare Management,50 (2), 106-107. doi:10.1097/00115514-200503000-00009
Svehla, C. J., & Anderson-Shaw, L. (2006). Hospital Ethics Committees. JONAs Healthcare Law, Ethics, and Regulation,8 (1), 15-19. doi:10.1097/00128488-200601000-00007
