Clinical Ethics

The Clinical Ethics Consultation Service is available at any time to hold clinical ethics consultations. These consultations are provided at the request of the patient, his or her family, or any health care professional involved in the care of the patient. Ethics consultations can be requested by calling Provider Access Service at (802) 847-2700, and asking to speak with the ethicist on call.

Ethics consultation might be considered when you have concerns about:

• limitation of treatment
• interpretation or application of advance directives
• selection of appropriate surrogate for a patient
• appropriate limits to parental authority for medical decision-making
• assessment of competence to consent or refuse
• use of scarce/expensive resources
• assessment of differing cultural or religious beliefs
• patient/family requests for "inappropriate" therapies
• patient/family requests for unorthodox therapies
• decision-making for socially isolated patients
• issues of confidentiality
• consent for research
• financial contraints on treatment

The Clinical Ethics Consultation Service takes a compassionate, multidisciplinary approach, seeking the input of all who care for the patient. Please consider an ethics consultation when important questions arise concerning optimum care.