Opportunity lost: end-of-life discussions in cancer patients who die in the hospital.

ABSTRACT:

Background

End-of-life discussions are associated with decreased use of life-sustaining treatments in patients dying of cancer in the outpatient setting, but little is known about discussions that take place during terminal hospitalizations.

Objectives

To determine the proportion of patients assessed by the clinical team to have decisional capacity on admission, how many of these patients participated or had a surrogate participate in a discussion about end-of-life care, and whether patient participation was associated with treatments received.

Design

Retrospective review.

Setting

Inpatient.

Patients

Adult patients with advanced cancer who died in the hospital between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2007.

Results

Of the 145 inpatients meeting inc

SUBMITTER: Zaros MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4146526 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature