Ethics & Patient Rights Committee

The Ethics & Patient Rights Committee of the Centra Medical Staff provides services to patients, families and staff in Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital, Lynchburg General Hospital, Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital and Centra Southside Community Hospital.

Call 434.200.4501

Our approach

Medical decisions can have ethical implications for us and for those around us. Centra is committed to thoughtful, open-minded consideration of ethical issues to help when these matters are unclear or unsettled. To provide a framework for reflective conversation, the medical staff has developed The Ethics & Patient Rights Committee which provides services in the areas of educational programming, policy development and review, and medical ethics case consultation.

All information discussed by the Ethics & Patient Rights Committee will be kept in the strictest confidence consistent with State Law and relevant Regulations.

Ethics & Patient Rights Committee criteria

The Committee is designed to include a wide range of perspectives.
Members of the committee are chosen to provide a balance of viewpoints with representatives from nursing, social work, clergy, administrative and medical staff.
Case consultation teams are made up of at least one physician from the Ethics and Patient Rights Committee, one non-physician from the Ethics & Patient Rights Committee and one additional member.

Ethics & Patients Rights guidelines

When confusion or disagreement regarding the ethical aspects of patient care develops, it is the responsibility of all involved parties to work toward resolution of the problem by discussing issues and listening to distinct points of view in an attempt to clarify and resolve ethical disputes.

Physician access

The attending physician on a particular case has the right to request a formal case consultation if he/she believes that ethical issues regarding the patient's care are insufficiently clear, or if disagreement regarding ethical aspects of a patient’s care persists after initial attempts to resolve the difficulty. In order to initiate a case consultation, the attending physician should complete an order through electronic order entry.

Patient access

If a patient or patient's surrogate desires a medical ethics consultation, he/she must notify the attending physician of the issue of concern and state the rationale for requesting a consultation. The attending physician is free at that point to deal with the ethical issue on his/her own in an attempt to improve communication and resolve the issue.

If the attending physician is unwilling to consult the Ethics & Patient Rights Committee and the patient or patient's surrogate is not satisfied by efforts to resolve the difficulty, the patient or patient's surrogate my request an ethics case consultation directly by contacting either the chairperson of the ethics committee or the hospital chaplain.

Staff access

If any staff person who is directly involved in the care of the patient feels that an ethics consultation is appropriate, he/she must notify the attending physician of the issue of concern. The attending physician is free at that point to resolve the issue.

If resolution is not possible and the attending physician does not wish to initiate a formal ethics consultation, then the concerned staff person may initiate an ethics case consultation directly by contacting the hospital chaplain; on weekends ask the operator to page the chaplain.