Jordan Fremstad, NEWS 8000; Right or wrong?: How La Crosse health-care leaders use ethics to make decisions
Gundersen Health System ethicist Tom Harter helps providers make best decisions for critical care
"As hospitals fill up and medical supplies are needed for more people, health-care leaders are forced to make even more tough decisions. How do you decide who’s health matters more?
Most of us strive to do what is right.
“We have to be cognizant of the needs of everybody in the hospital,” said Dr. Wayne Bottner, a hematologist at Gundersen Health System...
Bottner has to decide who receives the available resources. However, he doesn’t do it alone.
“We would never want a physician at the bedside to do that,” said Tom Harter, Gundersen’s bioethics and humanities director. “The psychological stress of that is extremely high.”
Health-care decisions are a wide, murky river that Harter helps bring into focus."
