Here to help
Patients, families and healthcare professionals sometimes find themselves in complex situations that require making difficult decisions.
- Patient and family values, cultural expectations, and spiritual or religious beliefs may impact treatment decisions.
- Families who are making decisions for a patient may question whether they are honoring their loved one's wishes.
Situations like these can be overwhelming.
Guided by Mayo Clinic's primary value — the needs of the patient come first — the Mayo Clinic Clinical Ethics Consultation Service provides resources for patients, families and healthcare professionals to help navigate these challenging circumstances.
What does the service provide?
The ethics consultation service is an advisory team that helps address uncertainty regarding value-laden concerns that emerge in healthcare. It comprises a group of trained clinical ethics specialists who partner with patients, families and healthcare professionals working through difficult ethical and moral questions in the medical setting.
Ethics consultations can help address questions, such as:
- Who is the most appropriate alternate decision-maker when a patient is unable to make treatment decisions?
- How do we help patients and families choose between a range of treatment options?
- How can Mayo Clinic support patients and families making complex medical decisions?
- Is it ethical to permit a patient to refuse treatment or an intervention?
How can the healthcare team best support vulnerable patients and their caregivers?
Who can request service?
Anyone can request a consultation, including:
- Patients.
- A patient's family or legal representative.
- Members of the patient's care team.
What can I expect from an ethics consultation?
Clinical Ethics Consultation Service members work to facilitate communication, clarify issues and identify options in situations involving ethical or moral questions.
An ethics consultant works with you and the care team to evaluate concerns and help support a mutually agreeable approach to resolution.
Specifically, ethics consultants may:
- Clarify the core ethical and moral dilemmas at hand, such as:
o Patient values and goals of care.
o Healthcare team or family disagreements.
o Moral distress.
- Guide you through a decision-making process that is aimed at consensus.
- Support the emotional needs of patients, family members and healthcare professionals.
- Connect you with appropriate resources.
There is no cost for this service.
When can I request a consultation?
Requests can be made whenever situations of moral or ethical uncertainty are encountered, big or small, at any stage of a patient's healthcare journey. Patients and family members are encouraged to reach out as soon as they sense a need.
How do I request a consultation?
To request a consultation, patients or family members may either:
- Notify a member of the patient's healthcare team that an ethics consult is desired.
- Contact a Mayo Clinic operator at the appropriate number below and state their request for an ethics consultation.
o Arizona: 480-301-8000.
o Florida: 904-953-2000.
o Mayo Clinic Health System: 715-590-3797.
