Boston Doctor has a recent post on this titled "Our Fault."
Friday, July 3, 2009
Inappropriate Treatment - More Providers' Fault than Surrogates'
Medical futility disputes are often described as being the "fault" of surrogates. They demand continued treatment that providers think is inappropriate. But the issue of ineffective treatment goes far beyond medical futility disputes. Far more often, ineffective treatment is provided and there is no dispute. The provider offers it (perhaps culpably) and the patient or surrogate accepts.
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1 comments:
Great post. Thanks for helping me find it! I agree there are a lot of treatments with skewed risk/benefit ratios that are never really discussed as futile because both sides usually agree to the planned course of action.
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