Ethics, Law, and Aging Review, Volume 9: Assuring Safety in Long Term Care: Ethical Imperatives, Legal Strategies, and Practical Limitations

This volume explores the concept of safety as applied in the long term care context. Chapters examine the way in which the quest for safety may work either synergistically or adversely upon other worthy social goals. Among the initiatives considered are promoting the decision-making autonomy of patients/clients and their surrogates, enhancing the quality of care and quality of life available to long term care residents, and providing fair compensation for injured victims when serious harm occurs.

Questions addressed that are of concern to legal and ethical theorists, social science researchers, and patient/client advocates include: To what extent do litigation and/or regulation accomplish the safety and other legitimate objectives of public policy in the long term care arena? Do the costs of various approaches outweigh the benefits in promoting safety and other goals? How do litigation and regulation compare with alternative approaches to achieving the same goals, in terms of an acceptable cost/benefit balance?

Marshall B. Kapp, JD, MPH, FCLM, is a faculty member in the School of Medicine at Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio, where he is the Frederick A. White Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Community Health and Psychiatry and Director of the WSU Office of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology. He holds an adjunct faculty appointment at the University of Dayton School of Law.