Can we accredit hospital ethics? A tentative proposal

Objectives The objective of this research was to develop ethics accreditation standards for hospitals.Research design Our research methods included a literature review, an expert focus group, the Delphi technique and a hospital survey. The entire process was separated into two stages: (1) the develo...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Wu, Min-Hua (Author) ; Liao, Chih-Hsien (Author) ; Chiu, Wen-Ta (Author) ; Lin, Ching-Ying (Author) ; Yang, Che-Ming (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: BMJ Publ. 2011
In: Journal of medical ethics
Year: 2011, Volume: 37, Issue: 8, Pages: 493-497
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
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Summary:Objectives The objective of this research was to develop ethics accreditation standards for hospitals.Research design Our research methods included a literature review, an expert focus group, the Delphi technique and a hospital survey. The entire process was separated into two stages: (1) the development of a draft of hospital ethics accreditation standards; and (2) conducting a nationwide hospital survey of the proposed standards.Results This study produced a tentative draft of hospital ethics accreditation standards comprised of six chapters and 62 standards based on the expert focus group and Delphi technique. The six chapters are: Medical ethics policies, regulations and leadership; The establishment and operation of a medical ethics committee; The establishment and operation of research-related ethics committees; Medical ethics education; Organisational ethical climate; and Respect for patients' rights and establishment of good hospital-patient relationships. The hospital survey indicated that the concept of an organisational ethical climate was new to most hospital managers, most hospitals disliked the idea of having a separate hospital ethics accreditation system, and small hospitals were concerned about their ability to comply with all of the standards.Conclusions Regardless of whether hospital ethics accreditation can be a stand-alone accreditation or just part of existing hospital accreditation programmes, we hope this draft can serve as a good reference for future endeavours by hospital accreditation authorities.
ISSN:1473-4257
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of medical ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1136/jme.2010.038836