Table 5.

Factors associated with declining to operate on a patient with a request to limit postoperative life support

Characteristic	N	Would decline to operate (%)	Bivariate P-value	OR (95% CI)
Subspecialty
Vascular	322	56		Ref
Cardiothoracic	306	69	0.001	1.4 (1.0 -2.0)
Neurosurgery	266	57		1.0 (0.7 -1.4)
Number of high-risk operations performed/month
0	33	64
1 – 5	307	62	0.81	Not in model
6 – 10	252	58		P>0.1
11+	234	62
Practice Setting
Private Practice	337	66		Ref
Academic Practice	317	55	0.02	0.7 (0.5 – 1.0)
Private with Academic Affiliation	161	57		0.8 (0.5 – 1.1)
Other	61	66		1.0 (0.5 – 1.7)
Model of ICU Care
Closed	95	47		Ref
Open	269	66	0.0007	1.6 (1.0 – 2.7)
Mixed	494	59		1.4 (0.9 – 2.2)
Believe it is acceptable to withdraw LST POD #7
Never, rarely	444	64	0.02	Ref
Sometimes, always	444	56		0.9 (0.6 – 1.2)
Believe it is acceptable to withdraw LST POD #14
Never, rarely	127	71	0.05	Ref
Sometimes, always	760	59		0.6 (0.4 – 1.0)
Concern about outcomes profiling
Not at all/a little concerned	443	56	0.007	Ref
Somewhat/very concerned	442	65		1.4 (1.1 – 1.9)*

^*denotes significance p<0.05