Ethics Committee interview?

[JadedMA]

So I am a medical assistant currently working as a phlebotomist in a big hospital while I work on my nursing degree. Today my manager called and said I needed to come in asap for an urgent meeting with an ethics committee member regarding an "incident" in the ER. She did not give any further information, just said to be there in the morning at 9, her office, don't be late.

I haven't been scheduled to work the ER in a little over a month now, so whatever is going on isn't completely recent. I'm just a phlebotomist. As far as I know, I haven't made any mistakes. The phlebo department always handles things like that internally, I have no idea why ethics would be involved. I just recently requested to have my hours reduced, as working 5 days a week on nights with an infant at home during the day has gotten to be too much for me to handle right now. I'm worried they think I've done something wrong.

To be honest, I have no clue what the ethics committee even does. I can find general job descriptions through a Google search, but I can't find anything about what they actually DO in regards to a hospital. What do they typically do? Do they have firing power? I am wracking my brains trying to figure out what incident they could be referring to. I've never done anything illegal or stupid, never mislabeled (that I know of, and I feel my manager would have called me in by now to discuss it). I've seen people die in the trauma bay and I've seen plenty of disgruntled patients. A couple come to mind immediately, one woman who had CPS called on her for threatening her child in front of the doctor, and another who was upset about being transferred, claiming he'd been "kidnapped". I've also been a personal witness to 4 cardiac arrests that ended in death of the patient.

Is it likely they are wanting more info on one of these events (or one I've forgotten about)? My manager did mention they wanted to talk to a couple phlebotomists, so it does make me feel a little better that it isn't just me. She said it was "urgent" though, which to me, doesn't make sense considering I haven't worked the ER in a while now.

What are your experiences with the ethics committee? What are they typically called in for?

i don't know if it makes a difference or not, but JACCHO was here a little over a month ago as well. Thanks for any input!