Main description:

Health systems need to set priorities fairly. In one way or another, part of this important task will fall to physicians. How do they make judgments about resource stewardship, and how should they do so? How can they make such decisions in a manner that is compatible with their clinical duties to patients? In this book, philosophers, bioethicists, physicians, lawyers and health policy experts make the case that priority setting and rationing contribute significantly
to the possibility of affordable and fair healthcare and that clinicians play an indispensable role in that process. The book depicts the results of a survey of European physicians about their experiences with rationing and other cost containment strategies, and their perception of scarcity and
fairness in their health care systems. Responding to and complementing these findings, commentators discuss why resource allocation and bedside rationing is necessary and justifiable. The book explores how bedside rationing relates to clinical judgments about medical necessity and medical indications, marginal benefits, weak evidence based medicine, off-label use. The book highlights how comparative studies of health care systems can advance more effective and fair bedside rationing through
learning from one another. From a practical standpoint, the book offers a number of strategies for health care systems and clinicians to work in tandem to allocate and ration resources as fairly as possible: how to foster more attention to fairness when rationing at the bedside, how to avoid
exacerbating health disparities when allocating resources, how to teach about bedside rationing to students, how to discuss rationing more explicitly in the public arena and in the doctor's office.

Contents:

Introduction
Marion Danis, Reidun Forde, Leonard M. Fleck, Samia A. Hurst, Anne Slowther

Part I. A European Survey of Bedside Rationing

Chapter 1. The Values at the Bedside Study: Bedside rationing by physicians
Samia A. Hurst, Anne Slowther, Reidun Forde, and Marion Danis

Chapter 2. The interaction of bedside rationing and the fairness of healthcare systems: Physicians' views
Samia A. Hurst, Reidun Forde, Anne Slowther, and Marion Danis

Part II The Societal Context

Chapter 3. The Swiss Context.
Samia A. Hurst

Chapter 4. The UK Context.
Anne Slowther

Chapter 5. The Norwegian Context.
Reidun Forde

Chapter 6. The Italian Context
Renzo Pegoraro and Alessandra Bernardi

Part III Analysis of Bedside Rationing

Chapter 7. How Do Economic Incentive Schemes Influence Rationing Decisions by Primary Care Physicians?
Tommy Allen, Matt Sutton, and Richard Cookson

Chapter 8. The legal context of bedside rationing.
Keith Syrett

Chapter 9. Bedside Rationing or Rational Planning: In Search of Perspective on Medical Benefit and Safety
Michael Barilan

Chapter 10. Just Caring: The Ethics Challenges of Bedside Rationing
Leonard M. Fleck

Chapter 11. Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment: Implications for Bedside Rationing
Howard Brody

Chapter 12. How can bedside rationing be justified despite coexisting inefficiency? The need for "benchmarks of efficiency"
Daniel Strech and Marion Danis

Chapter 13. The Collective Action Problem
Bob Goodin

Chapter 14. Statistical vs. Identifiable Lives: Why Not to Use the R Word.
Paul Menzel

Chapter 15. Give to The Doctor What is Due to The Doctor! Why 'Fair Rationing at The Bedside' is Impossible
Vegard Bruun Wyller

Part IV. Strategies for Promoting Fair Bedside Rationing

Chapter 16. Priority Setting in Hospital Care: Implementing National Legislation and Guidelines in a Hospital Trust
Odd Soreide, Stener Kvinnsland, and Torhild Heggestad

Chapter 17. Rationing by Clinical Judgment
Samia A. Hurst and Marion Danis

Chapter 18. Fairness and Transparency in Bedside Micro-allocation: Improving the Ethical Competence of Clinical Staff
Jan Schurmann, Barbara Meyer-Zehnder, Marcel Mertz, Heidi Albisser Schleger, Mathias Schloegl, Reto Kressig, Hans Pargger, and Stella Reiter-Theil

Chapter 19. Fair Resource Allocation in Clinical Care for Socially Disadvantaged Groups and Health Disparity Populations: Issues and Strategies
Irene Dankwa-Mullan, Paula Goodwin, and Matthew Wynia

Chapter 20. Bedside Rationing After Health Care Reform in the United States: The Emergence of Accountable Care Organizations
Steven D. Pearson

Chapter 21. Priority Setting Through Clinical Practice Guidelines: Lessons Learned
Ole Norheim

Chapter 22. Physicians as Bellwethers.
Susan Dorr Goold

Chapter 23. Moving Away from Silent Trepidation: Changing the Discussion of Rationing and Resource Allocation
Marion Danis, Greer Donley and Reidun Forde

Chapter 24. Priority Setting As a Clinical Skill: How Do We Educate Physicians?
Anne Slowther and Benjamin P Bennett

Afterword