Acute care practices relevant to quality end-of-life care: a survey of Pennsylvania hospitals.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Improving end-of-life care in the hospital is a national priority.

Purpose

To explore the prevalence and reasons for implementation of hospital-wide and intensive care unit (ICU) practices relevant to quality care in key end-of-life care domains and to discern major structural determinants of practice implementation.

Design

Cross-sectional mixed-mode survey of chief nursing officers of Pennsylvania acute care hospitals.

Results

The response rate was 74% (129 of 174). The prevalence of hospital and ICU practices ranged from 95% for a hospital-wide formal code policy to 6% for regularly scheduled family meetings with an attending physician in the ICU. Most practices had less than 50% implementation; most were implemented primarily for quality improveme

SUBMITTER: Lin CY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4070305 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature