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Patient satisfaction not affected by code status discussions

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, August 24, 2010

Some physicians might avoid talking with their patients about the sensitive subject of code status—the status of a patient regarding resuscitation efforts, such as CPR—because they worry about how the patient or surrogate will react.

A new study, however, found that code status discussions with admitted patients do not affect patient or surrogate satisfaction, according to “Code status discussions at hospital admission are not associated with patient and surrogate satisfaction with hospital care: Results from the multicenter hospitalist study,” published in the August issue of the American Journal of Hospital Palliative Care.

Researchers looked at more than 11,000 patient charts at six university hospitals. Of those patients, hospitalists discussed code status with 9.3% of them within 24 hours of admission. Researchers followed up with those patients one month after being discharged and surveyed their satisfaction levels.

“Discussing code status on admission to the inpatient setting did not affect patient or surrogate satisfaction,” states the study.

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