The Timing of Family Meetings in the Medical Intensive Care Unit
| Autor: | Michael Huber, Gina M. Piscitello, Mark Siegler, William Parham, William F. Parker |
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| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Time Factors 01 natural sciences Article 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Professional-Family Relations medicine Humans Family Hospital Mortality Prospective Studies 030212 general & internal medicine 0101 mathematics Aged business.industry Communication 010102 general mathematics Family meetings General Medicine Middle Aged medicine.disease Intensive Care Units Withholding Treatment Medical intensive care unit Life support Female Medical emergency business |
| Zdroj: | Am J Hosp Palliat Care |
| ISSN: | 1938-2715 1049-9091 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/1049909119843133 |
| Popis: | Purpose: Family meetings in the medical intensive care unit can improve outcomes. Little is known about when meetings occur in practice. We aimed to determine the time from admission to family meetings in the medical intensive care unit and assess the relationship of meetings with mortality. Methods: We performed a prospective cohort study of critically ill adult patients admitted to the medical intensive care unit at an urban academic medical center. Using manual chart review, the primary outcome was any attempt at holding a family meeting within 72 hours of admission. Competing risk models estimated the time from admission to family meeting and to patient death or discharge. Results: Of the 131 patients who met inclusion criteria in the 12-month study period, the median time from admission to family meeting was 4 days. Fewer than half of patients had a documented family meeting within 72 hours of admission (n = 60/131, 46%), with substantial interphysician variability in meeting rates ranging from 28% to 63%. Patients with family meetings within 72 hours were 30 times more likely to die within 72 hours (32% vs 1%, P < .001). Of the 55 patients who died in the intensive care unit, 27 (49%) had their first family meeting within 1 day of death. Conclusions: Family meetings occur considerably later than 72 hours and are often held in close proximity to a patient’s death. This suggests for some physicians, family meetings may primarily be used to negotiate withdrawal of life support rather than to support the patient and family. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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