Towards Sustainable Clinical Ethics Consultation

Abstract

　　Clinical ethics consultation is an advisory service designed to assist patients, families, and health care professionals in resolving ethical dilemmas. Ethics support services have increased in Japan recently, although the actual activity involved in clinical ethics consultation has rarely been reported upon. In this study, we review our institutional experiences in 74 clinical ethics consultations conducted between August 2016 and May 2019. We also summarize previous Japanese institutional reports of clinical ethics consultation and discuss ideas for making clinical ethics consultation sustainable. The Japan Council for Quality Health Care's evaluation of hospital management has strengthened the installation of clinical ethics consultation, but sustainable activity is economically limited. Based on our research, we propose adopting medical fees for clinical ethics consultation.