The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the city of Okayama, Japan, during a 1-year period after the reorganization of defibrillation by Emergency Life-Saving Technicians (ELSTs) with standing orders of CPR. The data were collected prospectively according to an Utstein style between June 1, 2003 ...

The effect of do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders on physicians' decisions to provide life-prolonging treatments other than cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for patients near the end of life was explored using a cross-sectional mailed survey. Each survey presented three patient scenarios followed by 10 treatment decisions. Participants were residents and attending physicians who were randomly as...

BACKGROUND Care plans for patients with do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders often fail to define limits other than cardiopulmonary resuscitation and fail to address other patient care needs. We studied the explicitness and comprehensiveness of care plans for patients with DNR orders and what factors were associated with this aspect of the quality of their care. METHODS A cross-sectional study was...

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has the ability to reverse premature death. It can also prolong terminal illness, increase discomfort and consume enormous resources. Despite the desire to respect patient autonomy, there are many reasons why withholding CPR may be complicated in the perioperative setting. This review outlines these factors in order to offer practical suggestions and to provo...

BACKGROUND Do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders for critically ill patients are frequently miscommunicated between attending physicians, house staff, and nurses. A computer-based system was developed to improve the communication of a procedure-specific DNR order form. METHODS Concordance of understanding of patients' DNR status was measured with the use of unstructured DNR orders (period 1), proce...

AIMS To determine whether the introduction of the Universal Form of Treatment Options (the UFTO), as an alternative approach to Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) orders, reduces harms in patients in whom a decision not to attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was made, and to understand the mechanism for any observed change. METHODS A mixed-methods before-and-after s...

Decisions about the appropriate termination of resuscitation attempts are among the most important that teams must face, yet there have been very few studies looking into the issue. Many national guidelines refer only to advance decisions to prevent the initiation of resuscitation, such as DNAR orders,(1-3) and yet the decision to continue or abort on-going treatment is a clinical one, which sh...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the consistency between treatments provided and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) orders. DESIGN Retrospective chart abstraction. SETTING Stratified, random sample of 90 nursing facilities in Oregon, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. PARTICIPANTS Eight hundred seventy living and deceased nursing facility residents aged 65 and older with a minimum 60...

Methods It was performed a prospective cohort study, according to Utstein style, of every inhospital CA occurred in the universitary “Virgen de las Nieves” hospital during a period of 3 years (July 2009 to June 2012). CA in operating room, recovery and when extra-hospital resuscitation was initiated were excluded. All patients in whom resuscitation was not performed or in which it was suspended...