committee

committee

 [kŏ-mit´e]

a body of people delegated to perform some function.

ethics committee a group of individuals formed to protect the interests of patients and address moral issues. It normally includes a board member of the institution, a lay person, and an administrator. A member of the clergy may also be included, as well as an ethicist if one is available. Most ethics committees work in an advisory capacity; they can help patients and families reach informed decisions and work with health care providers in order to make complex and difficult decisions. The ethics committee often reviews hospital policies and procedures for potential problems and may also reduce the potential for litigation against the institution.

Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition. © 2003 by Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.

committee

Hospital practice A group of health professionals affiliated with a hospital who meet regularly to address an area–eg, infection control, safety, etc that needs a multidisciplinary approach to ensure issues are addressed and quality of service is maintained. See Accredited Standards Committee, Blue ribbon committee, Committee of 10, 000, Committee for Freedom of Choice in Cancer Therapy, Credentials committee, Disaster committee, Ethics committee, Executive committee, Hospital committee, Interagency Research Animal committee, International Committee for Standardization, Microbiology & Infectious Diseases Research Committee, NAAIDC subcommittee, National Committee for Quality Assurance, Patient care committee, Political action committee, Radioactive drug research committee, Radiation safety committee, Recombinant DNA Advisory committee, Safety committee, Search committee, Seattle committee, Steering committee, Tissue review committee, Utilization review committee.

McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.