Developing Standard Operational Procedure for Hospital Ehics Committee

Since the ‘Boramae Hospital’ case and ‘Severance Hospital’ case, most hospitals in South Korea have set up Hospital Ethics Committees(HECs). However, they haven’t worked well because of the absence of legislation and SOPs and a manpower shortage. Based on reviews of cases of SOPs of HECs in other countries such as the USA, Canada, and the UK, this paper will give the basic principles and contents of SOPs for HECs with a foundation of due process and independency. First, HECs must guarantee the best interests of the patients. Second, SOPs must ensure the flexibility to operate HECs according to their situations. Third, HECs must build up the ethical competences through the utilization of case consultation, policy development, and ethics education. Forth, HECs must have the professionalism to get the trust and reasoning power regarding their decisions. Fifth, HECs must be comprised of manpower that has various expertise and experiences. Sixth, HECs must operate through consistent procedures to get the due process. Seventh, HECs must try to ensure the principle of publicity and the participation of the patients to ensure transparency. Eighth, the chief of the institution has the responsibility for HECs to operate independently so that the members of HECs are able to act independently. Ninth, HECs have to maintain and improve the competences through continuous quality assessment. Tenth, all the documents of HECs have to be organized and conserved to ensure operating transparency and confidentiality. Eleventh, we propose the standard templates to promote operating effectivenessope