Blood Transfusions & Ethics Committees

Rosemary Flanigan
April 3, 2009

Dr. Robert Potter, who was on the staff of the Center for 10 years and is back for a visit, told us that in Portland, OR where he is retired and working with the ethics center there, it is a policy of the hospital that patients who receive 7 blood transfusions must have their cases reviewed by the ethics committee.

That fact says several things to me:

1) the respect with which the ethics committee is held by the medical staff and administration

2) the realization that 7 blood transfusions raises distributive justice concerns

3) the track record of the committee in handling both clinical and ethical aspects of this fact

Our ethics committee at Carondelet Health is not alerted, though a medical staff committee of some kind must be.

Did any of you ever hear of an ethics committee so employed??????

THANKS.