Clinical Ethics: Support

Clinical ethics support services (CESS) are services that aim at supporting health-care professionals (including ancillary staff, managers, and directors), patients, and their families when being confronted with an ethical concern, question, or dilemma. CESS are increasingly being implemented in the USA, Canada, Europe, and slowly also within other parts of the world. Delivery of CESS is often categorized, broadly speaking, into three different models: clinical ethics committees (CEC), individual ethics consultants (EC), and facilitation of moral case deliberation (MCD). Strengths and weaknesses of these three models are discussed. Furthermore, attention is being paid to the ongoing debate on quality and training of CES. Finally, this entry ends with a brief summary on the current developments concerning the evaluation of CESS, CESS outcomes, and CESS’s impact on quality of care.