The MacLean Center has provided an ethics consultation service to the University of Chicago Hospitals since 1983. The consult service is available to assist in the care of patients when ethical questions or conflicts arise. Issues frequently seen by the consult service include determination of competence or decision-making capacity, questions about confidentiality and disclosure of information, advance directives, decisions to forego life-sustaining treatment, and issues of surrogacy. The ethics consultation service works closely with the Office of Medical Legal Affairs as cases often involve the intersection of ethics and law. The MacLean Center holds weekly case conferences to review the previous week's consultations.

Ethics Consultations are available for outpatients as well as inpatients. The ethics faculty are available to answer questions informally, refer relevant literature, and provide full ethics consultations. Faculty members are also available to offer teaching rounds to residents, fellows, faculty and medical students.

The Ethics Case Conference takes place every Wednesday from 3 – 5 p.m. in the Ethics Center. At the case conference, the prior week’s ethics consult cases are presented and the ethical issues are discussed by a multidisciplinary group of MacLean faculty. The presentation and discussion preserve strict patient confidentiality. Case conferences are open to HIPAA-certified individuals. CME credit is available for attending MD’s and other Illinois physicians. Please contact Lainie Ross for more information.

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To request an ethics consultation, please call the consult pager at 188-3522.