Hospital Ethics Committees in Korea^†

Objectives : To identify the present status of the Hospital Ethics Committees (HECs) activities in Korea.

Design, setting, participants : A postal survey was sent to 76 major residents training hospitals. Additionally, we included the data related to HEC obtained from our another survey to identify residents' personal perception of medical ethics.

Main measurements and results : HECs were present at 48 of the 58 responding hospitals. Theologians, social workers, and lawyers are rarely involved with HECs. Only five HECs have held a meeting more than once per month. The main barriers to having an active, consistent HEC were time shortages of the members, and inadequate knowledge of medical laws or medical ethics. The thirteen respondents believed their HEC’s recommendations had a major influence on clinical practices. Two-third (66.6%) of responding residents did not know the existence of HEC in their hospitals. The most common reasons to develop a new HEC was to lighten a physician s burden in terms of ethics and law.

Conclusion : The HECs activities were poor. To address the growing number of ethical dilemmas or medical disputes at the hospitals, systematic assistance to promote the activity of HECs seems to be urgently required in our society.