Klinische Ethikberatung: Ethik geht uns alle an!

Clinical Ethics Consultation (CEC) provides support to treatment teams in complex decision-making situations, focusing on patient autonomy, interprofessional collaboration and the legal framework. Following the introduction of CEC at the Vienna General Hospital and the Medical University of Vienna, a structured service has been established that systematically integrates ethical issues into everyday clinical practice. As well as conducting ethics case consultations, the initiative includes training programs, development of documentation tools for therapy goal planning and expansion of curricula and basic medical education. The aim is to strengthen teams' decision-making competence, to make ethical principles visible, and to sustainably increase the quality of patient-centered care. This supplement presents the background, implementation steps and experiences of the initiative, and illustrates practical approaches to embedding clinical ethics within an increasingly complex healthcare system in a sustainable way.