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Introduction
Part I: Theme Articles

1. Assuring Safety in Longterm Care: Ethical Imperatives, Legal Strategies, and Practical Limitations
2. Assuring Safety in Long-term Care: The Albatross of Historical Experience, Elias s. Cohen
3. At Least Mom Will Be Safe There: Role of Resident Safety in Nursing Home Quality, Marshall B. Kapp
4. Assuring Quality Nursing Home Care: A Case of Market Failure, Lawrence A. Frolik and Stephanie R. Gallo
5. Assisted Living: Safety vs. Autonomy, Ethel Mitty and Thomas Clark
6. Safety, Self-Determination, and Choice in Long-Term Care: The Consumer and Obbudsman Experience, Beverley Laubert and R. Michael Laubert
7. Hazardous to Our Health: Competing Values, Conflicting Agendas, and Mixed Messages, Eric Mount, Jr. and Kathleen B. Gannoe
8. Assuring Safety for People with Dementia in Long-Term Care Facilities: A Focus on Staffing, Iris C. Freeman
9. Improving Resident Safety Through Quality Medical Care, Rebecca D. Elon

Part II - Independant Articles

10. When Value and Meaning Become Monetary Rather than Moral: Issues in Geriatric Health Care Allocation, Katrina A. Brmstedt

Part III - In the Literature

11. Books--Reviewed by Marshall B. Kapp
12. Lifelines: Living Longer, Growing Frail, Taking Heart, by Murial R. Gillick
13. Advance Health Care Directives: A Handbook for Professionals, by Carol Krohm and Scott Summers
14. Ethical Patient Care: A Casebook for Geriatric Health Care Teams, edited by Mathy D. Mezey, Christine K. Cassel, Melissa M. Bottrell, Kathryn Hyer, Judith L. Howe, and Terry T. Fulmer
15. Bioethics in a Liberal Society: The Political Framework of Bioethics Decision Making, by Thomas May
16. Assisted Suicide: Finding Common Ground, edited by Lois Snyder and Arthur L. Caplan
17. Books Received

Index

This volume explores the concept of safety as applied in the long term care context. Chapters examine the way in which the quest for safety may work either synergistically or adversely upon other worthy social goals. Among the initiatives considered are promoting the decision-making autonomy of patients/clients and their surrogates, enhancing the quality of care and quality of life available to long term care residents, and providing fair compensation for injured victims when serious harm occurs.

Questions addressed that are of concern to legal and ethical theorists, social science researchers, and patient/client advocates include: To what extent do litigation and/or regulation accomplish the safety and other legitimate objectives of public policy in the long term care arena? Do the costs of various approaches outweigh the benefits in promoting safety and other goals? How do litigation and regulation compare with alternative approaches to achieving the same goals, in terms of an acceptable cost/benefit balance?