TABLE 2.
Characteristics of Ethical Issues Identified in Table 1
| Ethical Issuesa | 113 |
|---|---|
| Ethical issues per case | 1.48 ± 0.5 |
| Goals of care | 29 (26%) |
| Refusal of treatment | 12 (11%) |
| Capacity | 10 (9%) |
| Discharge planning | 9 (8%) |
| Resuscitation status | 6 (5%) |
| Pain management | 6 (5%) |
| Surrogate decision-making | 5 (4%) |
| Substance abuse | 5 (4)% |
| Forgoing LSTs | 4 (4%) |
| Resource allocation | 3 (3%) |
| Utilization review / length of stay | 3 (3%) |
| Other | 21 (19%) |
Results are presented as n (%).
a
Number of ethical issues was used as denominator to calculate frequencies of observed topics.
LSTs: Life-sustaining treatments (including, but not limited to, mechanical ventilation, BiPAP, vasopressors, ECMO, pacemaker/ICD, dialysis, transfusions, and/or artificial nutrition and hydration).