Medical Ethicists, Long-Term Care Consulting

Medical ethicists are professionals who help patients, physicians and other health care providers and patient families work through questions about what type of medical care may be appropriate for a specific individual. For older adults, these types of ethical questions often arise when an individual (or the substitute decision-maker for an incapacitated person) must weigh the risks and benefits of a proposed medical treatment in the light of the patient's history, experience, beliefs and stated wishes. Medical ethicists also help physicians or other health care providers consider whether new care policies or practices are ethically sound and in the best interests of their patients. Hospitals often have medical ethicists on their staff or, at the very least, have a medical ethics committee that meets regularly to discuss cases with difficult ethical issues. Long-term care residences, such as assisted living, dementia care facilities or skilled nursing facilities, rarely have a medical ethicist on their own staff, but the dilemmas facing their residents and staff can be just as difficult as those found in a hospital setting. A consulting ethicist can assist long-term care facilities when needed. A consulting medical ethicist can also help train care facility staff and can assist with the development of facility policies. Read More

Bergan, JD, MA, DeLila

350 Parker Square
Flower Mound, TX 75028
Phone: (972)809-0247

DeLila Bergan, JD, MA, is a biomedical ethicist with special interests in the health care issues of older or incapacitated adults, the concerns and needs of family care givers and related health care policies and law.

Hospitals tend to have medical ethicists on their staffs or, at minimum, they have standing medical ethics committees to advise their staffs in difficult situations.  Because hospitals continue to discharge patients more quickly than ever before, and because those patients tend to be sicker at discharge than in the past, many  health care crises now  take place, not in the hospital, but at home or in a residential care setting.  Patients at home, residents in care facilities, families and health care workers can benefit from the assistance of a medical ethicist when faced with the need to make difficult, or sometimes even controversial, care decisions.  Home health and facility staff  benefit from additional training in medical ethics and from assistance in formulating health care policies and procedures.  Most long-term care facilities, however, unlike large hospitals, cannot afford to employ a medical ethicist full-time.

Ms. Bergan is available to work with home health agencies or care facilities, and with patients and families, as a consultant on a case-by-case basis or as an ongoing resource on a retainer basis.  Her years as an elder law attorney, her experience as a guardian and conservator, her training and experience in biomedical ethics and her willingness to listen to and respect all the parties involved in care decisions make her a helpful voice in the decision-making process and a valuable advisor for policy development and staff training.

Please contact Ms. Bergan at (972) 809-0247 or by e-mail at seniornetnt@verizon.net for assistance or for additional information.

*Ms. Bergan is the President of E-Senior Services, the owner of this web site.