Catawba Valley Medical Center invites healthcare professionals and the community to attend the next ‘Conversations in Ethics’ to be held from 12 noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17 in the Northwest AHEC Lecture Hall, Room 112. This monthly, no-charge meeting provides an opportunity for discussion of some of the most important issues facing the healthcare profession today.

This month’s case study is called “Who Gets It?” When a real or potential public health crisis like the H1N1 virus becomes apparent, challenging public and private ethical dilemmas arise. A public health emergency will lead to shortages of mechanical ventilators, critical care beds, and other potentially life-saving treatments. Difficult decisions will be needed regarding who will and will not receive these scarce resources. For consideration at this session is the following hypothetical situation. A 25-year-old student, a 25-year-old truck driver and a 25-year-old prisoner are brought into the Emergency Room. All three are in critical condition with H1N1 and each requires a ventilator. Each would have a high chance of a full recovery with assistance from a ventilator although only one device is available. Among the questions for discussion include: How adequate is current legislation for dealing with isolation of patients, quarantine and social distancing? Can workers be forced to remain at work (particularly healthcare workers)? Is it legal to quarantine a person with H1N1 against his/her will? To what degree is a person’s autonomy put aside for the well being of the majority?

A free lunch will be served to those who register no later than Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009 by calling Glenda Fowler at 828/326-3365.

Catawba Valley Medical Center’s Department of Organizational Learning is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the North Carolina Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Completion of this activity provides 1.0 contact hour.

Catawba Valley Medical Center is a not-for-profit, public healthcare system providing and promoting the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being of the public in addition to serving as a center for health education, wellness services, preventative medicine and acute care. CVMC, twice recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as a Magnet facility, was recently named as a “Distinguished Hospital for An Outstanding InPatient Experience” by J.D. Power and Associates as well as a Hospital of Choice by the American Alliance of Healthcare Providers.