Treatment of the Dying in the Acute Care Hospital

Incurably ill patients often receive nonpalliative interventions at the end of life, and patients with dementia were significantly more likely to receive antibiotics for an identifiable infection than other patients, controlling for neutropenia and invasive tests and treatments.

Abstract

Incurably ill patients often receive nonpalliative interventions at the end of life. Patients with cancer receive more diagnostic tests, but patients with dementia receive more enteral tube feeding. Patients commonly receive systemic antibiotics, often empirically. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is equally applied, but is out of proportion to expected survival.