Survey of State and Institutional Policies In Response to COVID  

Summary findings of our research on the development and implementation of policies and procedures by hospitals, health systems, and states using ethical frameworks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID Consulting

We provide consultation to healthcare systems, departmental leadership, and other stakeholders as well as other private consulting firms about ethical quandaries that have arisen and those we predict in the face of the novel coronavirus. We also have engaged alliances to ensure analyses are comprehensively thorough to inform strategic planning.

Scrubs In Public: Informing Standardization of Policy and Oversight

Emma J. Kagel, Jeffrey Gruenglas, Kevin Whitford

The Covid-19 outbreak has forced health care providers, administrative officials, and the general public to each play their part in doing no harm to others. It may come as a surprise to many people, but health care workers may unknowingly spread Covid-19 in their communities simply by wearing scrubs in public.

Ethical Communication During a Pandemic

Emma J. Kagel, Jeffrey Gruenglas, Busi Mafanya Mombaur and Elizabeth Sivertsen

The COVID-19 pandemic is stressful, overwhelming, and scary for everyone around the world, regardless of profession and level of exposure. As healthcare professionals, we join the multitudinous in the war against COVID-19. As bioethicists, we are equally concerned with how ethical communication can progressively inform our response and navigation of COVID-19 especially from the lessons learned lens. While the alarmist approach taken by many has intentionally raised awareness of the need for PPE accessibility and public access to evidence-based working understandings of contagion control, we caution our healthcare provider colleagues to consider the implications of employing such language due to the ongoing novelty of the global virus that resists contagion. We hope to serve as canary or a mentor to all other sectors involved in communicating evidence-based, thoughtfully transparent yet compassionate communications, and support advocacy momentum without inciting through fear and threats  

Consulting

We engage in robust consultation to all stakeholders - including but not limited to, hospital or other organizational leadership and both clinical and nonclinical teams. We do also help facilitate patients and/or their loved ones direct access (through networks and supportive engagement) to their healthcare organizations ethics committee/consult service, local resources, and  and serve as an advocate of their utilization and understanding of the ethics team in their organization.