For Immediate Release					February 18, 1996
 
LU Biomedical Ethics Program Receives Grant for Intensive Care Guidelines 
Project
 
 
	APPLETON, WIS. - Lawrence University's Program in Biomedical Ethics has
been awarded a $9,600 grant by the Wisconsin Humanties Council in support of its
ongoing project in formulating guidelines for the use of intensive care
treatments.  
	The project, known as GRUIC (Guidelines for the Responsible Utilization
of Intensive Care), grew out of a conference held in Appleton in October, 1994
in which nearly 100 health care professionals discussed guidelines that would
assist in the decision-making process in the use of intensive care.  
	This is the first time in the country that a project has attempted to
formulate intensive care guidelines on a state-wide basis.  Similar projects are
in progress in several U.S. cities, including Denver, Houston and Sacramento. 
	Phase One of the GRUIC project, which is currently underway, involves
five groups located throughout Wisconsin, including one at St. ElizabethUs
Hospital in Appleton, that are analyzing relevant issues in intensive care from
three distinct perspectives:  adult intensive care, neonatal intensive care and
referral to intensive care from a long-term facility.  Each group is responsible
for preparing guidelines drafts that will be presented to public groups and
other health care professionals.
	The second phase of the GRUIC project, beginning in mid-March, will 
focus on opportunities for the public to offer direct input into the process of
drafting the guidelines.  With the help of the Wisconsin Humanities Grant,
trained resource persons will solicit citizen responses to the guidelines
through a series of public forums that will be held in nine districts around
the state.  The forums will explore the values and the ethics involved in
intensive care medical decisions.   
	In the third phase of the project, members of the five working groups
will reconvene to examine the responses generated by the public forums and,
based on that input, will revise their guidelines.  The GRUIC project will
conclude with a public presentation of its findings and final written
guidelines and implementation of those guidelines as policy in hospitals and
clinics throughout the state.
	Lawrence's Program in Biomedical Ethics is conducting the GRUIC
project in conjuction with Wisconsin Health Decisions, a grassroots organization
that supports community forums to address current concerns about health care. 
GRUIC is the sixth project since 1979 by Lawrence's Program in Biomedical Ethics
that has received funding by the Wisconsin Humanities Council.  
                             	
 
 
 Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 414/832-6590