title: Are futile-care policies the answer? Providers struggle with decisions for patients near the end of life.
abstract: Clinicians and ethicists are working to develop effective guidelines on futile care, but even reaching for definitions presents daunting challenges. When is patient care futile? Who decides? What are the legal, operational and health care resource utilization issues involved? An examination of the range of issues. And a look at the maturing hospice field.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hudson
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D002140:California; D032921:Consensus; D034462:Dissent and Disputes; D017041:Ethics Committees; D028741:Ethics Committees, Clinical; D004991:Ethics, Institutional; D006126:Group Processes; D006761:Hospitals / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000592:standards; D016134:Organizational Policy; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D016079:Refusal to Treat; D040841:Resource Allocation; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000592:standards*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States; D028761:Withholding Treatment