WHAT WE DO...

OREC serves as northern Ocean County’s resource for information related to ethical issues in non-acute care.  Our Committee facilitates the distribution of this information to OREC members, healthcare professionals, and members of the community at large.

Public, clinical, ethical, and legal policies are areas that consistently contribute to the larger body of knowledge that informs ethical decision-making.  It is the Committee’s charge to locate sources for information in these and other areas, so that OREC’s Policy Development and Case Consultation initiatives can apply that information to their work.

In Policy Development, OREC creates, develops, reviews and recommends ethics-oriented policies and procedures to non-acute care institutions.  The Committee’s aim is to translate the raw information into workable, helpful guidelines for use by professional caregivers, non-acute care institution residents, and their family members, as they face the often-difficult decisions surrounding quality-of-life and end-of-life issues.

The efforts of the Committee give residents the tools they need to express their desires when ethical dilemmas arise.  Because healthcare professionals are therefore better aware of residents’ wishes, uncertainty and conflict among those professionals is decreased, permitting them to focus clearly on the realistic alternatives which exist within a specific resident’s wishes.

OREC acknowledges that even the best planning cannot be considerate of every contingency.  It is for this reason that Case Consultation is OREC’s primary function.

OREC’s Case Consultation Committee explores and evaluates the factors in specific cases presenting ethical dilemmas.  Through careful consideration and analysis of these factors, the committee then reaches a consensus and makes a recommendation to the residents, families, and professionals involved.  It also offers support to all those affected.

Furthermore, the Case Consultation Committee reviews cases on both a prospective and retrospective basis, to ensure that outcomes produced by its recommendations accurately reflect the expectations upon which those recommendations were based.

For case consultation requests click here.