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UAMS Ethics Consultation Service

The UAMS Ethics Consultation Service (ECS) provides assistance for patients, families, surrogates, health care providers or other parties in addressing uncertainty or conflict regarding ethical issues that emerge in healthcare. The ECS follows a strict confidentiality code in its consultation process.  For more on the kind of help the ECS can provide, click here.

Requesting an Ethics Consultation

Any patient, family member or guardian, health professional or others with a legitimate interest in a patient may request the assistance of the ECS.   This service is provided by UAMS at no charge.

§         The ethics consultation service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

§         To access this service, page 405-8134.

§         Ward or clinic supervisors will help if a problem in access arises.

Types of Ethics Consultation Services

Conversation 

 

Members of the ECS are available to any involved party to discuss ethical concerns about the care of a patient. An informal exchange of ideas and opinions may be sufficient to meet the concerns.  If not, an ethics consultation may then be requested. For more on ethics conversations, click here. For more on ethics consultations, see below.

Consultation

 

 An ethics consultation is a structured process. It is conducted by a team and includes a formal meeting of all interested parties. A note summarizing the meeting, together with any pertinent observations or recommendations, may be entered in the patient's record. For more about the consultation process, click here.

If you have a question about an ethical problem or our service and would like a personal reply, please click here.