Communication of patients' and family members' ethical concerns to their healthcare providers.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateInformed consent was obtained from all participants. This ethical approval of the study was determined exempt by NIH Office of Human Subjects Research Protection, as well as by the Institutional Review Boards of each of the participating hospitals (MedStar Health Research Institute IRB, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center IRB, University of Maryland IRB, George Washington University Committee on Human Research, and Holy Cross Health IRB). All methods were carried out in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

"Funding Open Access funding provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This work was funded by NIH Clinical Center Department of Bioethics. The funding body played no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, interpretation of data, and in writing the manuscript."