A multi-facility comparative study of agreement contents on ethical issues in two simulated cases

Abstract

  Ethics consultations are meaningful in themselves as discussions among multiple professions, but until now, there has been no investigation into whether there are similarities between the agreement contents reached as a result of discussing the same case at different hospitals. If the solutions are not in the same direction and do not fall within a certain range, the significance of the ethics consultation itself may be questioned. Therefore, in this study, we compared the results of the agreement contents for two simulated cases discussed in ethics consultations at 12 experienced hospitals nationwide by a qualitative analysis. The results showed that many hospitals emphasized the importance of building relationships with patients and their families, and based on that, they explored the patient’s wish or presumed wish and discussed the best subsequent course of action. In both cases, the emphasis was on preservation and quality of life while the patient’s wish or presumed wish were unclear. In summary, although differences were observed between the hospitals in terms of details, a certain degree of similarity was observed in the contents of the agreement.