Linked Life Data

16499459

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/16499459

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:dateCreated
2006-2-27
pubmed:abstractText
Withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies is a common occurrence in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting and also occurs in other hospital settings, long-term care facilities, and even at home. Many studies have documented dramatic geographic variations in the prevalence of withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies, and some evidence suggests this variation may be driven more by physician attitudes and biases than by factors such as patient preferences or cultural differences. A number of studies of interventions in the ICU setting have provided some evidence that withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies is a process of care that can be improved. The interventions have included routine ethics or palliative care consultations, routine family conferences, and standardized order protocol for withdrawal of life support. For some of the interventions, for example, ethics consultations or palliative care consultations, the precise mechanisms by which the process of care is improved are not clear. Furthermore, many of these studies have used surrogate outcomes for quality, such as ICU length of stay. Emerging research suggests more direct outcome measures may be useful, including family satisfaction with care and assessments of the quality of dying. Despite these relative limitations, these studies provide convincing evidence that withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy is a process of care that presents opportunities for quality improvement and that interventions are successful at improving this care. Further research is needed to identify and test the most appropriate and responsive outcome measures and to identify the most effective and cost-effective interventions.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:issn
1096-6218
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
8 Suppl 1
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
S116-31
pubmed:dateRevised
2007-11-14
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
2005
pubmed:articleTitle
Interventions to improve care during withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments.
pubmed:affiliation
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98104-2499, USA. jrc@u.washington.edu
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Review, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural