Sometimes in lectures I show a New Yorker slide picturing the Grim Reaper about to collect a man near his front door. Ethics committees Most committee members are good-hearted volunteers who want to do the right thing and help others do the same. But ethics committees have problems. Few committees have budgets. Most have been unable to help with issues concerning outpatient medicine, managed care or genetics.
Cost seems to come before quality.
Executives' salaries soar out of sight. Physicians must spend more of their time with paperwork and documentation than with patients and families. Now ethics committees have an open window. They are poised to take advantage of a huge backlash against managed care. People are fed up with having to fight for access to care for which they think they've paid.