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{
End of Life Care in Critically Ill Patients
Hospital Authority Convention
Convention and Exhibition Centre
Hong Kong
May 7, 2014
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2.5 million die/year in the USA
DEATH IS MOST COMMON HEALTH EVENT
JAMA 2012; 307:997-1098
MEDICALISATION OF THE DYING PROCESS
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Ambulance
Emergency Department
Hospital ward
Intensive care
CONVEYOR BELT TO INTENSIVE CARE
Important for Intensivists to understand the source of EOL care
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Dying is frightening
Lack of community support for dying
Societal expectations (media)
Reluctance of medicine to discuss death
Specialisation of medicine
Difficult to be 100% certain
Because we can, we do
“they want everything done”
Litigation
SOME DRIVERS
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Single organ specialists
Reluctance to discuss death/dying Cure orientated
Time consuming
Defeat/embarrassment
Don’t understand limits of my specialty and therefore
HOSPITAL DOCTORS
CANNOT MAKE THE DIAGNOSIS OF DYING
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70% of Americans want to die at home
75% die in medical institutions
> 30% spend at least 10 days in ICU
> 30% bankrupt families in the process of dying
USA
Time September 2000
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DEMAND FOR CRITICAL CARE SERVICES INCREASING
WORLD WIDE
Int Care Med 2011; 37:377
Lancet 2010; 376:1339
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INCREASING NUMBERS OF PEOPLE DYING IN ICUS
JAMA 2013; 309:470
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FUTURE
AGE
1950 2040
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“…. To save lives of salvageable patients with reversible medical
conditions and offer the dying a peaceful and dignified death”
Kollef and Schuster 1994
“…. To use public health care resources in an efficient and equitable
way on the basis of transparent decidability”
Dowie 1998
“…. To facilitate recovery of organ dysfunction/failure to a level that
results in discharge from the hospital with a quality of life that is
acceptable to the patient”
2014
OBJECTIVES ARE CHANGING
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DIAGNOSING AND MANAGING DYING WILL BECOME AN
INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT AND CRUCIAL ROLE IN THE ICU
PRACTICE
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Most patients die in the ICU as a result of withholding and/or
withdrawing treatment
Diagnosing dying is part of our core business
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One side of river - treatment
Transition
Other side of river - death
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73% of European and 87% of Canadian ICU physicians
frequently admitted patients with unrealistic expectations Palda et al. J Crit Care 2205
Giannini et al Br J Anaesthesia 2006
Prevalence study: 27% of ICU physicians and nurses cared
for at least one patient receiving disproportionate care;
60% indicated this was common in their unit Piers et al. JAMA 2011
REALITY OF THE PROBLEM
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Do well – do no harm
Intensive care treatment is almost always accompanied by
intentional harm to the patient with the sole justification that the
patient might benefit from this and that this “harm” is proportional
to the benefit. When there is no benefit (anymore) or
disproportionate benefit, “harm’ is not justified and is ethically
questionable.
Respect autonomy
A competent patient may always refuse treatment or request
treatment is to be withdrawn
Do justice
Moral framework
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Use of ICU resources
Disproportionate excessive, too much, more than enough Unlawful – against the will of the
patient, goals not met
Inappropriate not proper - untimely Patient is not
critically ill anymore but
cannot survive outside ICU
Patient is not or minimally responding to
treatment
Treatment has no pathophysiologic basis (anymore)
Patient is suffering from multiple severe
co-morbidity and chronic organ dysfunction
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Why not use ‘medical futility’? ‘futile care’ is unidirectional whereas ‘disproportionate use of
ICU resources’ entails a bidirectional discrepancy between the administered care and the prognosis (‘not enough’) but also ‘too much – more than enough’
‘disproportionate as not enough’ rare in Western ICUs
Disproportionate is determined by many factors (severity of illness, co-morbidity, response to previous treatment, life expectancy, quality of life, cost of use of ICU resources, cost of long term follow up for society) where the burdens outweigh the benefits
Use of ICU resources
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Why not use ‘medical futility’?
Only one factor involved (patient’s (estimated) prognosis)
Regards a high degree of certainty regarding the prognosis
Use of life sustaining technology (e.g. mechanical ventilation, vasoactive drugs, ECMO, CVVH) virtually excludes patients spontaneous death
Possibility of a self-fulfilling prophecy: treatment was futile justified from the fact the patient died after withdrawal
Does not take into account that physicians and nurses have an evolving opinion concerning a patient’s prognosis and burden
There can be no futility when the goal of treatment for patients/family changes to “not being dead”
Use of ICU resources
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AGEING = CO-MORBIDITIES
Type 2 DM
Hypertension
Increased cholesterol
IHD
Decreased kidney, liver and genital function
Dementia
Skin cancers
Muscle bulk loss and falls
Osteoarthritis
Heart failure
Lung diseases
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No longer allowed to write ‘old age’ as a cause of death
The diagnosis of dying often reflects the sum of all the other “diagnoses”
that come with age
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e.g. end-stage cancer, COPD, and CCF
Some medical DIAGNOSES are inconsistent with life
e.g. unresponsive hypoxia and hypotension
Some medical CONDITIONS are inconsistent with life
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Often not the acute ‘diagnosis’ which determines the outcome but the underlying sum of the chronic
conditions – as yet unclassifiable
DYING
urinary tract infection lung infection ‘The old person’s friend’
e.g.
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Collecting diseases
(or age related conditions)
FRAILTY
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FRAILTY – (RESERVE)
Interacting with acute disease largely defines FUTILITY
Which defines DYING
FUTILITY
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Withholding and Withdrawing treatment
DIAGNOSING DYING
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Severity of the acute illness
Response to treatment
Therapeutic options
Co-morbidities
Scores e.g. APACHE and SAPS
QOL post hospital
???Patient/relative wishes
DIAGNOSIS OF DYING
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pH
Respiratory rate
GCS
PEEP level
Systolic BP
Specialist opinion - BEST
THE DIAGNOSIS OF IMMINENT DYING (1-5 days) PREDICTORS
CCM 2013; 41:2677
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WHO DECIDES
Autonomy
Beneficence
Non-malfeasance
Distributive justice
Right to make decisions
Should benefit
Do no harm
Equitable distribution of resources
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Autonomy – individual, patient, family choice
Right of health professionals to not deliver futile EOL care
EXTREME MODELS
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Uncertainty is part of medicine
Scientific certainty
Practical certainty - Aristotle
UNCERTAINTY
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Choices are not a smorgasbord
Physicians are not waiters
Doing exactly what the patient wants is not patient autonomy
Should not permit preferences, fear, guilt and fantasy to substitute for autonomy
PATIENT AUTONOMY AT THE EOL
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“SHARED DECISION” MODEL
COMMUNICATION IS CRUCIAL
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SEEKING CONSENSUS WITHOUT ASKING FOR PERMISSION
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DIAGNOSING DYING OUTSIDE THE ICU
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Most die in hospital
Half of all survivors have significant decrease in functional status
HOSPITAL CPR
Arch Int Med 2000; 160:1969
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Pretends medicine has something to offer
That we are withholding something from the dying
DNR (NFR)
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= Diagnosis of dying
= Medicine has no more to offer
= Change thrust of care
DNR (NFR)
HONESTY AND PALLIATION
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At best – basis for the beginning of an honest dialogue
DNR (NFR)
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Multicentre, international study
One-third of all emergency calls in hospitals are for previously not addressed EOL issues
PROBLEM WITH DIAGNOSING DYING IN ACUTE HOSPITALS
CCM 2012; 40:98-103
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Apr
2013 May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Jan
2014 Feb
179 170 184 182 163 178 173 152 191 184 168
Admitted (CD2 + S6) 96 91 84 92 88 98 99 83 85 86 75+3
Cancel/Back to Ward (Post op bed) 11 9 10 11 9 8 12 7 5 7 10
Reject 72 70 90 79 66 72 62 62 101 91 80
No bed & will review 16 13 26 6 13 5 1 3 26 11 10
Admitted afterwards 6 4 2 1 5 4 0 1 4 2 4
No need for admission 10 9 22 5 6 1 1 2 18 9 6
Other Outcomes 0 0 2* 0 2 0 0 0 4 0 0
Reconsult 31 26 34 34 28 27 24 34 44 50 34
Admitted afterwards 9 7 7 11 4 5 4 6 4 9 5
Did not admit to ICU 22 19 27 23 24 22 24 28 40 41 29
Not Suitable for ICU Admission 25 31 30 39 25 40 37 25 31 30 36
Condition too stable 5 5 6 6 5 6 8 10 7 1 4
Unlikely to benefit from ICU 20 26 24 33 20 34 29 15 24 29 32
Subtotal:
Subtotal:
Subtotal:
Subtotal Subtotal Subtotal
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Hospital specialists are very poor at diagnosing dying
Diplomacy, politics and conformity with the medical hierarchy usually trumps patient care
HOSPITAL MEDICINE
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Suffering of patients and loved ones
Frustration of treating physicians
Unsustainable health care costs
FAILURE TO DIAGNOSE DYING
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Family practitioner
General hospital specialist
Intensive care specialist
DYING – diagnosed by:
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HOSPITAL SPECIALISTS CAN NO LONGER DIAGNOSE DYING OR
RECOGNIZE PATIENTS AT THE END OF LIFE
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ICU Consultations
In ICU
Intensivists are becoming the specialists who diagnose ‘dying’
“When the ICU has no more to offer”
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PATIENTS DO NOT SUDDENLY DIE IN ICU!
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Death is a transitional process
INTENSIVE CARE
MANIPULATE UP – prolonging dying by temporarily supporting some of the dying organs
MANIPULATE DOWN – withdrawal and withholding when no progress is being made
MANIPULATION OF THE DYING PROCESS
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SOME PERSONAL LESSONS
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It depends on the way the information is presented
REMEMBER PEOPLE MAY BE RELUCTANT TO WANT ACTIVE
TREATMENT
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“There is little hope. I think to continue active treatment would be cruel and futile”
“There is a small chance of recovery. I think I
would give him a chance”
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“He/she is deteriorating, do you want everything done?”
“What would you like us to do?”
“The relatives want everything done”
Intubation
Ventilation
Dialysis
Heart lung transplants
Cryogenics
Learn to say “ WE CAN’T OFFER ANY MORE, YOUR LOVED ONE IS DYING”
SUPERMARKET MEDICINE
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This is a very serious situation. We are doing everything possible, but I’m afraid that he/she may die during this illness.
USE PLAIN SPEECH
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1. Facilitate switching from curing to caring
2. Consider family rounds
3. Emphasize privilege to care for the patient
4. Emphasize to relatives we are not there for them
5. Never ask “Do you want everything done?”
6. Never say “withdrawal of care” – use “withdrawal of support”
7. Never say care is a burden
8. Emphasize we will not abandon you - physically say this
9. What prediction of death – how short NOT how long i.e. “flipping it” – not boxed into a corner
10. Take a spiritual history
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Conveyor belt to intensive care – multiple drivers
Hospital doctors cannot make the diagnosis of dying or recognize patients at the end of life
Demand for critical care services increasing worldwide
Diagnosing and managing dying will become an increasingly important and crucial role in the ICU practice
Most patients die in the ICU as a result of withholding and/or withdrawing support
patients do not suddenly die in ICU
manipulation of the dying process
Often not the acute ‘diagnosis’ which determines the outcome but the underlying sum of the chronic conditions – as yet unclassifiable
Conclusions