Table 2.
Surveyed causes for ethics committee consultation. Percentages add to greater than 100% because more than one reason for CEC could be identified
| Ethical Question |
All consults
(n = 103) |
|
|---|---|---|
| n | % | |
| End-of-life decisions | 35 | 34.0 |
| Nonbeneficial care | 26 | 25.2 |
| Question of appropriate decision maker | 29 | 28.2 |
| Patient capacity for medical decisions | 20 | 19.4 |
| Lack of guardianship | 3 | 2.9 |
| Unrepresented patient | 11 | 10.7 |
| Patient representative making non-ideal decision | 1 | 1.0 |
| Conflict with care plan | 28 | 27.2 |
| Moral distress | 25 | 24.3 |
| Discharge concerns | 9 | 8.7 |
| Allocation of scarce resource | 7 | 6.8 |
| Religious directives | 6 | 5.8 |
| Organizational | 3 | 2.9 |
| Other | 2 | 1.9 |