Clinical Ethics Committee

Mission of the CEC

Patients, families, surrogates and providers are often faced with difficult decisions in health care today. Many of these decisions have complex medical, nursing, legal, psychological, religious, and social dimensions, and can lead to conflict or uncertainty. In response, University of Missouri Healthcare has established the Clinical Ethics Committee and Consult Service and whose mission it is to assist patients, families, and members of the health care team who are involved with difficult clinical decision-making and need assistance in sorting through the ethical aspects of those decisions.

About the Committee

This well-defined committee and consult service within University of Missouri Health Care is coordinated by the Center for Health Ethics staff and continuously available to both the academic and private sectors and actively strives to foster a common dialogue and understanding for ethical decision-making within the health care community at large.

The committee meets monthly to discuss various hospital policies, consultation reports, and give a forum for discussion of some of the ethical issues and challenges being addressed today. The committee meetings offer education to the students who participate concerning the processes the committee and consult services use in assisting the patient population, hospital staff, and the community at large in dealing with these ethical issues and concerns.

The members of the Ethics Consult Service team are also members of the Clinical Ethic Committee. Members represent several departments on campus, and also the surrounding community that include: physicians, nurses, administrators, chaplains, social workers, psychologists, philosophers, ethicists, theologians, attorneys, fellows, residents and medical students.

To contact the Clinical Ethics Committee or the Ethics Consult Service to discuss any ethical questions or concerns you may call 573-882-2738 during office hours, 8:00 - 5:00, Monday through Friday, or after hours you may call the hospital switchboard to have the consultant on call paged.

You may also contact us via e-mail at: healthethics@missouri.edu

This is a volunteer service. There is no charge for this consultation.