Katherine Fischkoff, MD, MPA, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Critical Care, Department of Medicine & Lydia Dugdale, MD, MAR, Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Associate Professor of Medicine, Director, Columbia Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, Associate Director of Clinical Ethics, NYP, Columbia University Medical Center, "Clinical Ethics Consultations During the COVID-19 Pandemic at a New York City Medical Center"
Dr. Fischkoff and Dr. Dugdale in their talk shared some insights from the ethics department of NYP. The number of ethics consults raised from 25 in 2020 to already 96 in 2020. 83% of these were COVID related with about 77% of hospitalised patients being COVID related. While in 2019 about half of the consultations were EOL related, 2020 about 85% were. They conclude with some lessons to be learned, like the general capability of NYP to respond to such extreme situations while some processes still could be improved and would benefit from legal backing.
