The State Expert Panel assumes
that vendors that serve health care
organizations have been commit-
ted to these preparedness efforts
and can attest to the significant
accomplishments that have been
made since the events of 9/11.
The State Expert Panel believes
its responsibility is to identify the
ethical issues that will occur in a
disaster, to provide initial guidance
regarding ethical decision-making,
to provide a forum for discussion of
these ethical issues and then to take
Ethical Responsibilities of Health Care Vendors
Given the very serious ramifications of limited resources in a disaster and its accompanying decisions and outcomes,
there is an ethical responsibility on the part of vendors that serve health care to prepare themselves for how they
will maintain operations, continue to support health care organizations and how they will allocate scarce resources
in a disaster.
The State Expert Panel on the Ethics of Disaster Preparedness in collaboration with the Wisconsin Division of
Public Health, Hospital Emergency Preparedness Program and the Wisconsin Hospital Association has developed
a series of brochures, entitled “The Ethics of Health Care Disaster Preparedness.” These documents provide
guidance to health care organizations and staff so that all have a better understanding of why certain decisions are
made, how these decisions are informed by the ethical principles in this document and how these decisions will be
implemented when there are limited resources.
The State Expert Panel has produced this document primarily as a basis for discussion so health care organizations
and vendors that support health care can participate in a dialogue that will further refine these guidelines. The
desired outcomes of these discussions include:
a greater awareness of the ethical issues that will arise during a disaster
•
an understanding of the ethically justifiable expectations regarding what to expect from the health care
•
system and from health care vendors during a disaster
Before