 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Craig M Klugman, PhD, Dept. of Health Ecology/Nevada Center for Ethics and Health Policy, University of Nevada Reno, MS 274, Reno, NV 89557-0036, 775-784-4041x229, cmk@unr.edu and Noel Tiano, ThD, Nevada Center for Ethics and Health Policy, University of Nevada Reno, MS 339, Reno, NV 89557.
Under federal rules and certification policies, medical centers and hospitals are supposed to engage ethics committees in their operations. However, public health departments, small medical practices, hospices, and long term care facilities not only lack requirements for ethics expertise, but also often lack the human resources and finances to have such an enterprise. With the help of the Nevada Center for Ethics and Health Policy, Reno-Sparks, Nevada has established the Community Healthcare Ethics Committee to fill these gaps. CHEC is composed of members of ethics committees from the larger hospitals, ethicists from the university, community members, health practitioners, health administrators, and students. The purpose of this group is to fulfill ethics committee functions for those organizations and facilities that desire or need these services but lack the resources to have their own. Also, CHEC allows members of existing institutional ethics committees to interact and share ideas. CHEC provides general education, CME CEU, and CLE education, community outreach, and ethics consultation. We also work with the Washoe County Health Department in offering ethics education to their clinical employees. In this presentation, the authors discuss how CHEC came to be and how it functions in the community. The authors demonstrate how successful the program has been and offer a model for other communities that may be interested in starting a public ethics committee.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Ethics, Community Education
Related Web page: www.unr.edu/ncehp/HEthics.htm
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Community Healthcare Ethics Committee of Reno, Nevada (nonprofit)
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.