Investigation And Research On The Organization And Related Problems Of Hospital’s Ethics Committee In Fujian Province

OBJECTIVE: The aims of the present study were to investigate the organizationconstruction, function orientation, personnel composition, staff training, andoperational management of Hospital’s Ethics Committee in Fujian Province, andpropose correspond suggestions on standardization construction of Hospital’s EthicsCommittee at present stage as a reference for Ethics Committee to formulate relatedpolicy on the basis of a questionnaire survey. METHODS: A questionnaire surveywas carried out on17hospitals in Fujian Province. The survey data was input byEXCEL and processed by SPSS software including constituent ratio, mean, t test,χ2test for a thorough analysis of the current status of Hospital’s Ethics Committee inFujian Province. RESULTS: Of the17Hospitals surveyed, it was found that EthicsCommittee was set up in14, established independently in3and equipped with afull-time secretary merely in1. In terms of organization construction and functionorientation, the review systems of Hospital’s Ethics Committees in Fujian Provincecould meet regular censorship requirement while ethical review system of laboratoryanimal was merely done in one hospital; Personnel composition was relativelyreasonable with an acute shortage of specialized personnel while staff training neededstrengthening with inadequacy of participation of national training program andtraining on medical staff; In terms of operational management, most hospitals havemade constitution and regulatory documents of ethics committees but have not set upspecific standard operation procedures and supervision organization; most ethicscommittees are lacking in regular working fund; The conference censorship of mostEthics Committees was consistent with the review procedure but most of them didn’thand out censorship materials in advance; the review of scientific research projectsapplied and approved has been improved but that of optional researches was in a lowcensorship ratio and ongoing review was weak. CONCLUSION: with a late start,Hospital’s Ethics Committee in Fujian Province is still in the primary stage and uneven in development, but its organization building and functional framework havebeen formed. SUGGESTIONS: Hospitals should attach great importance to theconstruction of Ethics committee, reinforce management and increase input.Hospital’s Ethics Committee should constantly improve its ethical review system andrelative standard operation procedures. Meanwhile, all departments should Strengthensupervision and management of ethics committee and gradually build up ethicscommittee certification system in line with our country. Therefore, only in many jointefforts can the standardization construction and ethical review of Hospital’s EthicsCommittee be improved.