Who Uses ECWeb?

ECWeb will be used by a select group of ethics consultation service staff at each VA facility, and also by selected staff at the National Center for Ethics in Health Care (Ethics Center).

Each individual authorized to use ECWeb at a particular VA facility will be assigned one or more of the following roles:

• Administrator Consultant

• Consultant

• Evaluator

In this topic, we'll look at how individuals in each of these roles will use ECWeb. We'll also review how Ethics Center staff will use the data collected in ECWeb.

The Administrator Consultant Role

At each VA facility, one or more individuals will function as an ECWeb Administrator Consultant.

The individual(s) who fill the Administrator Consultant role are responsible for managing all ECWeb users at their facility.

The Administrator Consultant:

• Creates and maintains a user profile for each ECWeb user at the facility

• Assigns each ECWeb user one or more roles within the application

• Assists users in creating and maintaining their ECWeb passwords

• Controls which users will be able to generate ECWeb reports at the facility

• Acts as a liaison with Ethics Center staff if troubleshooting is needed

An Administrator Consultant can also perform all of the same tasks as an individual in the Consultant role.

The Consultant Role

Individuals who have been assigned the role of Consultant are responsible for conducting ethics consultations, and for documenting those consultations in ECWeb.

For Case consultations, the ECWeb application assists consultants in following the CASES approach to consultation by structuring data entry screens based on the CASES model (Clarify, Assemble, Synthesize, Explain, and Support). For Non-Case consultations, data entry is less structured, but important elements are required.

Consultants can also access consultation records in ECWeb that addressed similar ethics questions at their facility in the past.

Consultants have one additional important responsibility. They are responsible for categorizing new consultations as either a Case or Non-Case.

The Evaluator Role

At each VA facility, the role of Evaluator will be assigned to one or more staff members.

Evaluator(s) are responsible for collecting feedback from participants in ethics consultations performed at their facility, and for documenting responses in ECWeb.

Facility Reports

Selected individuals at each VA facility will be able to generate reports on consultation activity at their own facility.

The Administrator Consultant can assign this ability to any ECWeb user, but it will generally be assigned to Administrator Consultants and to users in supervisory positions.

ECWeb reports will make it possible to:

• Track the level of consultation activity

• Document workload

• Monitor key aspects of the consultation process

• Track participants' satisfaction with the consultation service

National Center for Ethics in Health Care (Ethics Center) Staff

Selected staff members at the Ethics Center will also be able to access data from all VA facilities from the ECWeb database. Ethics Center staff will generally view aggregated data, but may at times view individual consultation records.

Ethics Center personnel will use this data in support of:

• Quality improvement efforts

• Developing new products and services

• Contributing to knowledge in the field of ethics consultation

Ethics Center staff, like all VA staff, is legally required to report egregious violations, such as criminal activity, to appropriate VA authorities.