Lack of ethical, legal, and clinical consensus about best practice sometimes combines with a poor clinical evidence base.

Once focused on hospital liability, risk managers now navigate a broader set of enterprise risk management responsibilities.

Framing risk management goals as patient centered and evidence based helps align them with goals of ethics.

Mission statements offer limited benefit when patients do not have meaningful choices about where to seek care and can be misused.

The separation of dental and medical care is a medical ethics issue because it negatively impacts vulnerable populations who lack access to dental care.

Suspected child abuse cases can be identified and repeat hospitalizations of such cases prevented using multidisciplinary teams to evaluate pediatric burns.

When a child or family begins to stand out because of patterns in history or physical findings, physicians must determine whether to take a closer look at the situation.

Guidelines for physicians who have a duty to report their suspicions of child abuse.

Professional obligation should override personal values when it comes to providing legal medical services.

Strategies for preventing and detecting mistreatment of the elderly through neglect or abuse are offered.