Mediation: Common Practices and Ethical Boundaries.

This true story of a mediation in a personal injury lawsuit describes a sequence of events and fairly common practices that raise significant questions about mediation ethics as well as attorney ethics.

From Philosopher in Residence to Healthcare Mediation.

It is such a treat and a privilege to have been at the "Defining Health Law for the Future" symposium and to have met Charity's family. She was dear to me.

Social Determinants of Health: As Seen in a Courtroom.

To provide effective care physicians must attend, not just to medical issues, but also to the social determinants of health - racial factors, food insecurity, housing instability, transportation barriers and beyond. Social determinants also include a largely underrecognized dimension: legal vulnerabilities such as rental evictions and debt adjudications. Yet rarely do medical trainees have an opportunity to witness legal vulnerabilities, firsthand.

Pediatric Discharge From the Emergency Department Against Medical Advice.

In this Ethics Rounds we present a conflict regarding discharge planning for a febrile infant in the emergency department. The physician believes discharge would be unsafe and would constitute a discharge against medical advice. The child's mother believes her son has been through an already extensive and painful evaluation and would prefer to monitor her well-appearing son closely at home with a safety plan and a next-day outpatient visit.

Story of a Mediation in the Clinical Setting.

Conflicts in the clinical setting can spiral downward with remarkable speed, as parties become ever more incensed and entrenched in their positions. Productive conversations seem unlikely at best. Nevertheless, such situations can sometimes be turned into collaborative problem solving with equally remarkable speed.

Conflict Resolution in the Clinical Setting: A Story Beyond Bioethics Mediation.

Because ethics consults are often more about conflict than moral puzzlement, the skills of conflict resolution and communication facilitation are now deemed a core competency for ethics consultants. Those skills range beyond the traditional ambit of "bioethics mediation," as illustrated here by a recent mediation regarding a difficult discharge. As conflict permeates healthcare, often spawning downstream ethical issues, conflict resolution services might be deemed a genre of preventive ethics suitably offered by ethics committees.

Consumer-defined health plans: emerging challenges from tort and contract.

The emergence of Consumer-Defined Health Plans with large deductibles means that many people will be financially responsible for all or most of their healthcare during any given year. This increasing exposure to costs will bring important changes in the physician-patient relationship, as patients seek more information about the care their physicians propose. Litigation can be anticipated in two areas.