This compilation of articles, research studies and case material deals with the multi-faceted dimensions of hospital law. The volume brings together international experts' views on the interface between medicine, law and ethics as they relate to hospital policy and procedures. Topics explored include: ethics committees, informed consent, malpractice, medical experts and the courts, medical records, use of computers, DNR, death, organ transplants and bio-medical technology.

I Introduction

Hospital Laws, Procedures, and Ethics in a Contrastive World
Hospital Law - New Trends (A. Carmi)
II Responsibility
Liability of Hospitals to Patients
Medicolegal Aspects of Hospital Functioning
Legal and Organizational Control of an Ambulatory Health and Social Service Centre
Preventing Patient Falls: A New Perspective
Legal Aspects of Unauthorized Medical Intervention by Paramedical Personnel
Legal Problems Encountered by Emergency Medical Personnel in a Prehospital Setting
Confidentiality of Substance Abuse Records and Mental Health Records in the United States of America
Teaching Nursing Law in Nursing Schools
III Technology and Law
The Role of Technology in Hospitals
Advanced Medical Technology and the Deinstitutionalized Handicapped
The Computer as a Risk-Management Tool in the Hospital
IV The Patient
Responsibility for One's Own Illness
Patient's Informed Consent in Austria
Overview of American Law on Informed Consent: Physician's Duty to Disclose
Israeli Law on Informed Consent
Handling of Complaints in Health Systems in the USA, Canada, England, and Israel
Evaluation Committees
Preventive Incentives Through Graded Health Insurance Mechanisms
Medical Records: Property of the Patient
V Ethics
Development of Institutional Ethics Committees in American Hospitals
Legal Aspects of Biomedical Ethical Issues Confronting Hospitals
Do Not Resuscitate (DNR): How to Decide, Who Should Decide, and Why?
VI Miscellaneous
Artificial Insemination - Legal and Social Aspects
Critical Care Medicine and Organ Transplantation
Cerebral Death: Human Life or Not?
Extrarenal Transplants: The Ohio Experience
Application of Unorthodox Treatment Methods to the Terminally I11 - The Ma'ayanAffair
A Proposal for a Network of Psychiatric Treatment Services: A Unitization Model
Medical Evidence in the Israeli Labor Courts: Court-Appointed Expert Medical Advisors.