The Clinical Ethics Consultation Services (CECS) serves as the clinical arm of the Union Health Ethics Committee, supporting patients, families, and healthcare professionals in addressing ethically complex situations that arise during patient care. Our mission is to promote thoughtful, respectful, and ethically sound decision-making by fostering open communication, clarifying values and goals, and helping resolve conflicts or dilemmas related to medical care.
Ethics consultations are available to anyone directly involved in a patient's care, including patients, family members, physicians, nurses, social workers, and other members of the health care team. Common consultation topics include end-of-life decisions, advance directives, surrogate decision-making, treatment refusals, questions about appropriate levels of care, conflicts among care participants, innovative treatments, and concerns related to moral distress.
The Ethics Team provides consultation through discussion, education, facilitation of communication, and collaboration with all involved parties to support patient-centered care and informed decision-making.
Ethics consultation is available 365 days a year. Routine and urgent consultations can be requested through the hospital switchboard, with after-hours emergent support available through the house supervisor.
Our goal is to ensure that ethical concerns are addressed with compassion, clarity, and respect for the values of every individual involved.