UCLA and Rand Health researchers say critically ill patients receiving “futile care” are creating delays in care for other patients in Intensive Care Units.; Credit: Maya Sugarman/KPCC
Critically ill patients receiving “futile care” are creating delays in care for other patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). So say researchers from UCLA and RAND Health, in their report published in the journal Critical Care Medicine.
Futile care is defined as care “used to prolong life without achieving a benefit meaningful to the patient.” An example is that of a patient who will die in a few days or weeks, but is kept alive with a machine. The study took place over the course of three months, and out of 1,136 patients, 123 were determined to have received futile treatment. The authors of the study determined that no one had ever quantitatively researched non-beneficial care, and felt numbers were needed in order to have an effective public discussion.
Are some critically ill patients taking up space that could be better used for a patient that has a shot at life? Or is the extension of life a right of a dying person and their family? When and how do patients and families decide it’s time to let go? Is it worthwhile for families and individuals to explore end-of-life decisions well before those decisions are forced upon them?
Guest:
Dr. Neil Wenger, co-author of the report, a professor at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, and Director of UCLA’s Health Ethics Center