ABSTRACT
The process recommendations of the Ethics Section of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) for ethically based decision-making in intensive care medicine are intended to create the framework for a structured procedure for seriously ill patients in intensive care. The processes require appropriate structures, e.g., for effective communication within the treatment team, with patients and relatives, legal representatives, as well as the availability of palliative medical expertise, ethical advisory committees and integrated psychosocial and spiritual care services. If the necessary competences and structures are not available in a facility, they can be consulted externally or by telemedicine if necessary. The present recommendations are based on an expert consensus and are not the result of a systematic review or a meta-analysis.
Subject(s)
Critical Care , Decision Making , Emergency Medicine , Humans , Critical Care/standards , Emergency Medicine/standards , Telemedicine , GermanyABSTRACT
The treatment situation in intensive care is characterised by a specific asymmetry in the relationship between patients and the team: Patients are particularly dependent on their environment and often show impaired consciousness and capacity to consent. This facilitates the use of coercion or enables and/or provokes it. The aim of this recommendation is to show ways to recognise patients with their wishes and needs and to integrate them into treatment concepts in the intensive care unit in order to reduce and avoid coercion whenever possible. The recommendation shows the variety of possible forms of coercion and discusses the moral standards to be considered in the ethical weighing process as well as legal conditions for justifying its use. It becomes obvious that treatment measures which may involve the use of coercion always require a careful and self-critical review of the measures in relation to the indication and the therapeutic goal. The recommendation's intention therefore is not to disapprove the use of coercion by interprofessional teams. Instead, it aims to contribute to a sensitive perception of coercion and to a critical and caring approach to formal and especially informal (indirect) coercion.
Subject(s)
Coercion , Emergency Medicine , Critical Care , Humans , Intensive Care UnitsABSTRACT
Despite social laws, overtreatment, undertreatment, and incorrect treatment are all present in the German health care system. Overtreatment denotes diagnostic and therapeutic measures that are not appropriate because they do not improve the patients' length or quality of life, cause more harm than benefit, and/or are not consented to by the patient. Overtreatment can result in considerable burden for patients, their families, the treating teams, and society. This position paper describes causes of overtreatment in intensive care medicine and makes specific recommendations to identify and prevent it. Recognition and avoidance of overtreatment in intensive care medicine requires measures on the micro-, meso- and macrolevels, especially the following: (1) frequent (re-)evaluation of the therapeutic goal within the treating team while taking the patient's will into consideration, while simultaneously attending to the patients and their families; (2) fostering a patient-centered corporate culture in the hospital, giving priority to high-quality patient care; (3) minimizing improper incentives in health care financing, supported by reform of the reimbursement system that is still based on diagnose-related groups; (4) strengthening of interprofessional co-operation via education and training; and (5) initiating and advancing a societal discourse on overtreatment.
Subject(s)
Emergency Medicine , Quality of Life , Critical Care , Humans , Medical OveruseSubject(s)
National Health Programs/legislation & jurisprudence , Nurse's Role , Patient Care Team/legislation & jurisprudence , Suicide, Assisted/legislation & jurisprudence , Aged , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/nursing , Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1/psychology , Documentation/standards , Female , Germany , Hospice Care/legislation & jurisprudence , Humans , Parkinson Disease/nursing , Parkinson Disease/psychology , Personal AutonomyABSTRACT
Intensive care medicine and palliative care medicine were considered for a long time to be contrasting concepts in therapy. While intensive care medicine is directed towards prolonging life and tries to stabilize disordered body functions, palliative care medicine is focused upon the relief of disturbances to help patients in the face of death. Today both views have become congruent. Palliative aspects are equally important in curative therapy. In the course of illness or in respect of the patient's will, the aim of therapy may change from curative to palliative. Two examples are presented to illustrate the ethical challenges in this process. They follow from the medical indication, attention to the patient's will, different opinions in the team, truth at the bedside and from what must be done in the process of withdrawing therapy.
Subject(s)
Critical Care/ethics , Decision Making/ethics , Delivery of Health Care/ethics , Palliative Care/organization & administration , Terminal Care/ethics , Germany , Physician's RoleABSTRACT
Medical decision making is affected by different aims and influencing factors. Nowadays economic aspects are so important that they influence the structure of hospitals, the number and quality of personnel, and the treatment and care of patients. This leads to conflicts with moral aims, especially when the necessary service cannot be provided due to financial reasons or when doubtful offers are supposed to increase revenues. Examples demonstrate cases in which economic aspects become more important than patients' interests because physicians are corruptible. It is necessary to communicate values. Patients' health should be first and economy should be a subordinated service.
