Access to Consultation Services
Any member of the health care team may request a consultation by contacting the OHSU Hospital Call Center (Operators) at (503) 494-9000 and requesting the Ethics Consultant on-call. On a monthly basis, the Call Center Is provided a schedule for the ECS by the ECS Chair. The call schedule lists the call staff in order of access priority to ensure call back up is available. The first call person has 30 minutes to respond. If no response occurs within 30 minutes, the operator will the contact the next call person to facilitate a response to the request. Calls received from patients or family members will be directed to the Patient Advocate Office.
The ECS is responsible for administering the consultation call schedule and providing 24-hour call coverage. Requests during regular business hours (Monday - Friday, 7am to 5pm) are handled by the consultant on-site. After-hours and weekend requests are managed by telephone consultation, unless the consultant on-call believes it is more appropriate to come on-site.
Consultation Procedure
Consultation requests are made directly to the Ethics Consultant on-call. All requests involving potential ethical issues are accepted for consultation. The Consultant will determine the level of consultation and preliminarily establish the ethical issues involved. The Consultant may choose to facilitate the consultation or may choose to call another member of the ECS to serve as the primary consultant.