Priority Setting Up Close

 

Barbara Russell and Deb deVlaming

 

The Journal of Clinical Ethics 22, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 61-70.

 

Published accounts of specific priority-setting projects in healthcare are relatively few. This article chronicles the collaborative efforts of a professional practice lead and a bioethicist to strengthen the priority-setting process for a specific home care service. The project included two features not often reported in other priority-setting projects: the entire “frontline team” was involved for the project’s duration, and a group of parents was canvassed for their views. Informed by both Daniels’s “accountability for reasonableness” approach and challenges levied against it, the article explains the evolution of an assessment procedure, eligibility and priority criteria, and guiding substantive principles and concludes with the “lessons learned” by the project leads.