Am doctor in an overwhelmed county hospital in the South. We are so overcapacity that most patients spend 12+ hours in a hallway waiting to be roomed. We have e

Am doctor in an overwhelmed county hospital in the South. We are so overcapacity that most patients spend 12+ hours in a hallway waiting to be roomed. We have every motivation to discharge patients fast. Hospitals are dangerous. You lose your sense of autonomy, are woken up throughout the night for blood draws or medication management, and are at risk for nomosocomial infection or delirium. It’s an emotionally charged place and conflict between families and doctors happens often. Hard ethical questions happen. For instance a young man may come into the ED with massive polytrauma and require immediate blood transfusions to keep him alive. There’s a chance he would be the person to refuse a transfusion on religious grounds, and the family would be upset with our team for ‘violating his body’. Because of situations like this, or the one described in the cnn article, ethic committees are an essential part of hospital care.