Presented on April 12, 2012

In summer 2011, CHA and Ascension Health unveiled a new ethics resource and assessment tool to assist organizations in the Catholic health ministry in assessing the breadth and quality of their ethics services, identify potential areas of improvement and evaluate progress. Since then, several health systems and facilities have utilized the resource, providing an opportunity to share real-world experiences and insights with ethics committees and others in Catholic health care who are committed to achieving excellence in their ethics programs.

Ron Hamel, Ph.D., CHA senior director, provides an overview of the “Excellence in Ethics” initiative and key components of the resource. Joining him to discuss their experience using the resource at the system and facility levels was John Paul Slosar, Ph.D., senior director, ethics, Ascension Health in St. Louis, and Mark Repenshek, Ph.D., healthcare ethicists, Columbia-St. Mary’s Medical Center in Milwaukee. They also discuss strategic opportunities for other systems and facilities to benefit from using the resource in their own environments and organizations.