Decision-Making for Hospitalized Incarcerated Patients Lacking Decisional Capacity.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Incarcerated patients admitted to the hospital face threats to their rights to privacy and self-determination in medical decision-making. Little is known about medical decision-making processes for hospitalized incarcerated persons who lack decisional capacity.

Objective

To characterize the prevalence of incapacity among hospitalized incarcerated patients and describe the decision-making processes, including who served as surrogate decision-makers, involvement of prison employees in medical decisions, and ethical concerns emerging from the patients' care.

Design, setting, and participants

Retrospective descriptive and qualitative study of medical records for all patients admitted from prison for at least 24 hours between January 1, 1999, and September 1, 20

SUBMITTER: Batbold S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10696514 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature