From Ethics to Palliative Care: A Community Hospital Experience

One of the most vulnerable and voiceless groups of patients within American hospitals and institutions today are those who are dying. Health care institutions struggle with the challenge of providing excellent palliative and end-of-life care to patients while providing curative therapies at the same time. This article describes the efforts and accomplishments of the ethics committee of a community hospital system to provide for the palliative and end-of-life needs of its patients.