Table 3.

Multivariable Model: Impact of Patient and Clinician Characteristics, Location of Communication, and Barriers to Care on Quality of Communication

Independent variables	t-value	p-value	β Coefficient (SE)
Intercept	36.18	<0.001	4.40 (0.12)
Patient's race
Non-white	−2.16	0.03	−0.13 (0.06)
Location of majority of communication
Family conferences	2.56	0.01	0.17 (0.07)
Rounds	1.69	0.09
Private at the bedside	1.24	0.22
Barriers to care
Too sick to allow interaction with family	−3.35	<0.001	−0.19 (0.06)
Language differences	−3.09	0.002	−0.24 (0.08)
Family had unrealistic expectations	1.49	0.14
Not enough staff, heavy patient load	−2.04	0.04	−0.16 (0.08)
Family was angry	−2.60	0.01	−0.22 (0.08)
Lack of communication among clinical staff	−2.94	0.004	−0.31 (0.10)
Conflict with others on the team	−2.15	0.03	−0.26 (0.12)
Family did not visit or call	−2.26	0.03	−0.28 (0.12)
Personal difficulty with family	−2.63	0.009	−0.45 (0.17)
Outside scope of practice	1.84	0.07

The multivariable model of the quality of communication included research site, type of clinician, patient characteristics (age, gender, race, PICU length of stay, illness trajectory, nature of death, and do-not-resuscitate order), location of communication (for the three most common locations), and barriers to care. Statistically significant findings are reported in bold.