Table 1.
Prevalence and Scope of Health Care Ethics Programs (HCEPs) in US General Hospitals
| Hospital category | Population estimate (% of hospitals) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospital has a HCEP (N = 462) | Content areas included in the scope of HCEPs (N = 291) | |||||
| Clinical ethics | Business ethics | Research ethics | Regulatory compliance | Ethical leadership | ||
| Bed size | ||||||
| 1–99 (reference category) | 96.0 | 100 | 16.7 | 0 | 27.8 | 27.8 |
| 100–199 | 97.4 | 90.9 | 36.4 | 13.6 | 27.3 | 34.1 |
| 200–299 | 98.8 | 96.2 | 36.5 | 23.1 | 38.5 | 50.0 |
| 300–399 | 98.5 | 100 | 31.1 | 26.7** | 33.3 | 46.7 |
| 400–499 | 97.7 | 97.0 | 30.3 | 36.4** | 18.2 | 60.6 |
| 500 + | 99.3 | 97.0 | 25.3 | 35.4** | 28.3 | 36.4 |
| Ownership | ||||||
| Govt. (Federal) | 100.0 | 97.0 | 66.2 | 19.8 | 29.8 | 93.9 |
| Govt. (non-Federal) | 98.3 | 96.6 | 37.7 | 3.9 | 16.0 | 43.4 |
| Investor-owned; for-profit | 97.5 | 96.8 | 15.0 | 3.8 | 26.8 | 27.6 |
| Nongovt. (not-for-profit)—church operated | 99.7 | 97.7 | 26.6 | 15.8 | 31.1 | 40.6 |
| Nongovt. (not-for-profit)—other | 95.4 | 96.9 | 22.0 | 16.0 | 33.5 | 29.2 |
| Academic affiliation | ||||||
| Major teaching | 100.0 | 98.9 | 33.1 | 44.8** | 33.8 | 52.2 |
| Minor teaching | 99.5 | 96.6 | 31.6 | 17.8** | 32.2 | 50.2 |
| Non-teaching (reference category) | 95.6 | 97.1 | 21.8 | 5.2 | 26.4 | 24.2 |
| Location | ||||||
| Urban | 98.8 | 96.6 | 30.5 | 27.4* | 29.7 | 44.7 |
| Rural (reference category) | 95.0 | 96.0 | 24.0 | 16.0 | 28.0 | 16.0 |
| Total | 97.1 | 97.0 | 26.2 | 12.6 | 29.0 | 35.7 |
*p < .01
**p < .0001