RT Journal
A1 Schiedermayer DL, Puma J, Miles SH
T1 EThics consultations masking economic dilemmas in patient care
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 1989
FD June 1
VO 149
IS 6
SP 1303
OP 1305
DO 10.1001/archinte.1989.00390060049010
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.1989.00390060049010
AB • The ethical and economic aspects of treatment decisions are often intimately entwined. We demonstrate how clinical economic questions were raised in clinical ethics consultations involving three patients: a 49-year-old retarded man who required short-term tube feeding; a 74-year-old man with metastatic prostatic cancer whose relatives disagreed about whether or not he should have surgical treatment; and a 55-year-old man whose health maintenance organization declined to pay for liver transplantation. Ethics consultants can help to clarify financial constraints and to resolve financial conflicts of interest. All physicians must develop the ability to unmask economic issues in medical care.(Arch Intern Med. 1989;149:1303-1305)