Current Developments in Privacy & Security Rule Enforcement

Please join us for this CLE at Hamline University School of Law next Thursday afternoon.  



Jerome Meites (Chief Regional Civil Rights Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, Region V, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services) will present "Current Developments in Privacy & Security Rule Enforcement." 

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Nurse Prosecuted for Murder for Turning off Life Support

The Mississippi Attorney General announced that his office is prosecuting registered nurse April Renae Grissom, 28, for turning off a patient's life support machines.



Grissom was working as an R.N. at the facility where the alleged victim, 77, was receiving treatment. Grissom is charged with "depraved heart murder."  Under Mississippi law, "depraved heart murder” is an action that demonstrates a "callous disregard for human life" and results in death. It carries a life sentence.

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Goold Inquest - No Gross Failure for Unilateral Withdrawal

Following a fall in February 2013, Bob Goold was admitted to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.  He was placed on life support.  But when Goold's condition failed to improve, he was put on the "Withdrawal of Treatment Pathway" and food and fluids were stopped - WITHOUT family consent.  He died seven days later.  (BBC News) 



This week, Coroner William Morris recorded a narrative verdict.  Morris founds that Goold's clinicians accepted that their interaction with the family was "less than optimal in a number of significant respects" and that a formal consultation and decision on the end-of-care pathway should have taken place.  



BUT Morris further found that while this was an "unfortunate failure on the part of the hospital," it was not a "gross failure - it did not affect the outcome or what followed that decision."



Goold's dementia had already compromised his life expectancy and after the fall it must have been "apparent to all that in the absence of some dramatic change Mr Goold was going to die from his injuries."  Morris said, after a final attempt to bring Goold off life support failed, "no further treatment was considered to be in his best interests" and he was given "appropriate symptomatic relief."

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WSJ Health Experts on End-of-Life Medicine

Over the past few days, the Wall Street Journal Health Experts blog has posted quite a few good comments on end-of-life medicine, by top experts such as Elliott Fisher and Peter Provonost.  

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Summer Institute for Informed Patient Choice

You are cordially invited to attend the 2014 Summer Institute for Informed Patient Choice (www.siipc.org)

Call for Abstracts & Early Bird Registration closing soon!

WHAT IS SIIPC?

The SIIPC conference aims to reach an audience of policy-level delegates; law, medical, and ethics leaders; and patient advocates to help health care delivery go the final mile of ensuring that patients are aware of, understand, and can make use of evidence pertaining to their wellbeing. That is, to make sure that no patient is left in the dark. As two sides of the same coin, law and medicine must work together to encourage policy legislation to guide practice toward a true process of patient choice. SIIPC will draw on the ethical imperative for shared decision making in health care, and participants will:

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  attain a deeper understanding of the importance of greater transparency in health care;
  
  


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  engage in joint learning about innovative health care delivery methods to promote patient-centered care, and;
  
  


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  spread innovative solutions to promote safe, high quality, and transparent patient-centered care through inter-disciplinary collaboration.
  
  

SIIPC AT A GLANCE

Dates	June 25-27, 2014
Location	Dartmouth College: Hanover Inn, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
Hosts	*The Dartmouth Center for Health Care Delivery Science *The American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics *The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice
Additional Sponsors	*Informed Medical Decisions Foundation *BMJ *Emmi Solutions
CLE Credit Eligibility	ASLME will apply for 14.75 (based on a 60 minute hour) credits on your behalf upon request
CME Credit Eligibility	ASLME designates this live educational activity for a maximum of 14.75 Category 1 Credits
Speakers & Program	*20+ confirmed speakers from law, medicine, bioethics, and patient advocacy *2 poster presentations *Numerous opportunities for cross-disciplinary networking & discussion
Early Bird Price	$365 (now through March 31, 2014) + higher chance of securing a deeply discounted room at the conference site, which are booking quickly
Regular Price	$395 (April 1, 2014 through day of)
Call for Abstracts	Deadline: February 28, 2014. Extended until March 14, 2014
More Information	www.siipc.org
Twitter	#siipc14
Questions?	SIIPC2014@dartmouth.edu

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UCLA Health Ethics Center

Thank you to the UCLA Health Ethics Center (and to the ethics committee) for a great visit.  I hope that it was as valuable for them as it was for me.  

I spend much of my year crafting and editing one law review or medical journal article after another.  I am well aware of the law and the academic literature.  Plus, I review, consider, and respond to counterarguments.  



But it is extremely valuable (and humbling) to walk outside the doors of the law school or philosophy department and actually "test" proposed solutions in the real world.



The photo above that I pulled from a campus newspaper article profiling the center is dated.  Pictured in the photo, left to right, are: 

Neil Wenger, MD, MPH - Director, Ethics Center; Professor of Medicine and Health Services Research

Kevin Dirksen, M.Div., M.Sc.- Clinical Ethicist  

James A. Hynds, LL.B., PhD - Senior Clinical Ethicist; Visiting Assistant Professor of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine  

Katherine Brown-Saltzman, RN, MA - Co-Director, Ethics Center; Assistant Clinical Professor, UCLA School of Nursing  

The Center now also has a Clinical Ethics Fellow, Tyler Gibb, J.D, Ph.D, and an Administrative Assistant, Mona Mazraani, B.S.

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POLST Legislative Guide

The National POLST Paradigm Task Force has posted some new legal resources designed to help identify potential legal barriers of POLST Program development and provide guidance for moving past potential barriers.  



I was pleased to help the NPPTF develop the new POLST Legislative Guide.

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