Sometimes ethical questions arise at an institutional level rather than an individual patient level. The team at the Program in Medicine and Human Values have experience to help. PMHV bioethicists work closely with Sutter Health hospitals and administrators to develop solutions and policies to address systemic issues. The goal is to help close institutional ethics gaps to improve healthcare quality.

Addressing Moral Distress

PMHV strives to address staff distress when dealing with complex patient situations. Our team members find early intervention options, answer questions and help hospital personnel decompress in the face of troubling circumstances.

We offer:

• Staff debriefing sessions to discuss complex cases.
• Involvement in hospital team rounds.
• Initiatives to reduce doctor, nurse and staff distress.

Improving Healthcare Quality

Enhancing healthcare means improving not only scientific, technical and service quality, but also ethics quality. It requires assuring that clinical and management practices consistently adhere to widely accepted ethics standards, norms and expectations. PMHV works with organizations to identify ethics gaps at the system level and develop solutions for quality improvement.

For information on policies and organizational ethics initiatives, email ethics@sutterhealth.org.