Clinical Ethics Consultation Service

For over 20 years Loma Linda University Health has offered prospective consultation to assist patients, families and professionals on matters with ethical implications at no cost to the patient or insurance company. Consultations may be sought at any of the hospitals or clinics affiliated with Loma Linda University Health. They are provided by trained and experienced clinical ethicists and may be requested by anyone involved in the care of a particular patient.  To request a clinical ethics consultation please call (909) 558-4000 and ask the operator to connect you with the covering clinical ethicist. 

Issues that often lead to ethics consultation include:

• decision-making for a patient without family,
• decisions about limitation of treatment,
• interpretation of written advance directives (Durable Powers of Attorney for Healthcare, Living Wills),
• instances when it is not clear if the patient has capacity to make his or her own treatment decisions,
• management of infants born with life-threatening anomalies,
• resolution of conflict about treatment decisions,
• and many other issues.

The Clinical Ethics Consultation Service is not the appropriate venue for retrospective review of professional ethics issues.  Such matters are best addressed through established peer review mechanisms.  The Director of Clinical Ethics is available to consult with the peer reviewers when the issue involves matters of clinical ethics.

Clinical Ethics Consultants

• Grace Oei, MD, Director
• Tae Kim, MD
• Marquelle Klooster, MD
• Gina Mohr, MD
• Catherine Walsh, MD
• Robert D. Orr, MD,CM, Professor of Medical Ethics, Loma Linda University School of Medicine
• Gerald Winslow, PhD, Vice-President, Mission and Culture, Loma Linda University Health