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Psychiatric Hospital Ethics Committee Discussions Over a Span of Nearly Three Decades

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Abstract

Various types of health settings use clinical ethics committees (CEC) to deal with the ethical issues that confront both healthcare providers and their patients. Although these committees are now more common than ever, changes in the content of ethical dilemmas through the years is still a relatively unexplored area of research. The current study examines the major topics brought to the CEC of a psychiatric hospital in Israel and explores whether there were changes in their frequency across nearly three decades. The present paper reports on a thematic analysis of the written verbatim transcripts from 466 ethical topics brought to the CEC between the years 1991 and 2016. The following major topics related to ethical dilemmas were identified: confidentiality (30%), patient autonomy (23%), health records (14%), dual relationship (12%), allocation of resources (11%), inappropriate professional and personal conduct (9%), and multicultural sensitivity (1%). Topics related to confidentiality increased significantly over the years, as did inappropriate professional and personal conduct. In addition, the analysis showed that the content of the ethical cases and the resolutions suggested by the CEC also varied over the years. In conclusion, although most ethical topics have remained relatively stable over time, the discourse around them has evolved, requiring a dynamic assessment and reflection by the mental health practitioners serving as members of a CEC.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated for this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the data collection process.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology, The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), P.O. Box 167, 46150, Herzliya, Israel

    Michall Ferencz-Kaddari

  2. Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, 52900, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Michall Ferencz-Kaddari

  3. Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ariel University, 44837, Ariel, Israel

    Abira Reizer & Meni Koslowsky

  4. School for Social Work, Smith College, Northampton, MA, 01063, USA

    Ora Nakash

  5. Geha Mental Health Center, 1st Helsinki st., Petach Tikva, Israel

    Shai Konas

  6. Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, P.O.B 39040, 69978, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Shai Konas

Authors
  1. Michall Ferencz-Kaddari
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  2. Abira Reizer
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  3. Meni Koslowsky
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  4. Ora Nakash
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  5. Shai Konas
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Contributions

MFK collected the data, analyzed, and interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript. AR and MK and ON contributed in analyzed the data and writing the manuscript. SK contributed in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abira Reizer.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee at the Geha mental health center, Geha Mental Health Center, 1st Helsinki st. Petach Tikva, Israel. Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, P.O.B 39040 Ramat Aviv. Number of the study: 0016- 15-GE17. The research was conducted on data gleaned from files of committee’s Discussions, and not from the individuals themselves. During data collection all identifying information was eliminated before analysis.When we wrote up the findings for the article, in a few cases, where we thought there was a slight chance that a combination of specific information may lead to identifying an individual, we modified a piece of data to insure anonymity. This had no effect on any of our conclusions. In summary, there is no chance that any one’s identifying information was revealed in our paper.

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Ferencz-Kaddari, M., Reizer, A., Koslowsky, M. et al. Psychiatric Hospital Ethics Committee Discussions Over a Span of Nearly Three Decades. HEC Forum 35, 55–71 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-021-09454-8

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