Search Tag: end-of-life care
2023 30 Nov
Collaboration between critical care doctors, patients and families is essential to managing critically ill patients. Promoting open communication, shared decision-making, and emotional support is essential to ensure a patient-centred approach in critical care settings. Communication plays a crucial role in a critical care setting....Read more
2022 13 Sep
There are laws regulating healthcare practice at the end of life. Most healthcare professionals rely on their clinical knowledge to inform treatment decisions during this time. However, the extent to which the law informants their decision-making at the end of life remains uncertain. In this study, the researchers describe what healthcare professionals...Read more
2022 19 Apr
Blue Ridge Hospice has named Jason Parsons Chief Business Development Officer for the highly regarded 41-year-old mission-driven provider of serious illness and end-of-life care. As Chief Business Development Officer, Parsons will be responsible for planning and implementing strategies to lead Blue Ridge Hospice as it navigates the ever-changing,...Read more
2021 24 Aug
COVID-19 has drastically changed how end-of-life care is practiced in the intensive care unit. Safety concerns for society limits family visitation but is contrary to patient and family-oriented care. This article provides an ethical analysis of the pros and cons of having family members present at the death of a COVID-19 positive ICU patient and...Read more
2020 22 Oct
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted the public to become more aware of and interested in advance care planning, with a growing number of patients exerting efforts to have their wishes properly documented so that they would be respected, finds a new study (Funk et al. 2020). You might also like: Critical Care at the End of Life: A Study...Read more
2020 03 Mar
Sepsis is a common condition encountered in hospitals and is associated with high morbidity and mortality. However, with advances in treatment, aggressive management and early institution of antibiotics, the number of sepsis survivors has increased. Each year in the US alone, over a million patients are discharged after being treated for sepsis....Read more
2018 12 Sep
Nobody goes into emergency medicine to care for dying patients, but people do die in emergency departments, and end-of-life care could and should be better in the ED, said Mary Dawood, RN, of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, speaking at the European Society of Emergency Medicine congress in Glasgow this week. She noted that EOLC in...Read more
2018 06 Sep
Many patients near the end of life are subject to rapid response system (RRS) calls. A study was conducted in a large Sydney teaching hospital to identify a cutoff point that defines nonbeneficial treatment for older hospital patients receiving an RRS call, describe interventions administered, and measure the cost of hospitalisation. "Identifiable...Read more
2018 23 Apr
Who should read You Can Stop Humming Now ? Everyone and anyone! These are the stories of what comes after the medical miracles, when the sirens and flashing lights have gone quiet, behind curtains and closed doors. In this book, you will meet those whose lives have been extended by days, months or years as a result of our treatments...Read more
2018 16 Mar
Do we need yet another standard operating procedure? Variability in end-of-life care would seem to demand a standard operating procedure, but a roadmap towards harmonisation arguably would be easier to implement. Mainly due to enormous pharmacological and technological innovation during the last decades, intensive care medicine can...Read more
2017 21 Feb
Adding a patient-created video testimonial to a living will or "POLST" form makes it easier for medical providers to interpret patients' wishes for critical versus end-of-life care, according to a study published in Journal of Patient Safety. "Our study shows that medical professionals are more likely to reach a consensus after viewing a video testimonial,...Read more
2017 11 Jan
According to new research by Claire K. Ankuda, MD, MPH, with the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Michagan Health System in Ann Arbor, and colleagues, regions that have greater primary care physician involvement during the last six months of life tend to have lower intensity, lower-cost end-of-life care. The research...Read more
2016 21 Jun
As the demographics of ICU admission change, intensive care unit (ICU) staff are increasingly faced with ethical, legal and cultural considerations relating to end-of-life (EOL) care, including withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment. The World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine (WFSICCM) Task Force, chaired...Read more
2016 12 Apr
Patients admitted to the ICU commonly have not have discussed their end-of-life (EOL) goals with family or surrogate decision-makers. Even if patients have discussed their preferences, they may not be documented in the medical record. ICU staff therefore may need to discuss goals with families and patients. A variety of decision aids, communication...Read more
2016 25 Jan
If you compare how people near the end of life are treated in the U.S. and other regions of the world, you will find very specific differences. In the U.S, such patients are typically attached to tubes and machines. They also have to go through invasive procedures and because of the fact that they are inundated with all these measures, most of the...Read more