Code status discussions at hospital admission are not associated with patient and surrogate satisfaction with hospital care: results from the multicenter hospitalist study.
BACKGROUND
Physicians may avoid code status discussions for fear of decreasing patient or surrogate satisfaction.


METHODS
Charts of patients admitted to medical services at 6 university hospitals were reviewed for documentation of a code status discussion in the first 24 hours of admission. Satisfaction with care provided during the hospitalization was assessed by telephone 1 month after discharge.


RESULTS
Of the 11 717 patients with 1-month follow-up, 1090 (9.3%) had a code status discussion documented. Patient or surrogate satisfaction did not differ by whether a discussion was documented. The lack of association persisted after adjusting for patient's severity of illness and using propensity adjustment for likelihood of having a discussion.


CONCLUSIONS
Discussing code status on admission to the inpatient setting did not affect patient or surrogate satisfaction.
Anderson
Wendy G
WG
Division of Hospital Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 94143, USA. anderson.wg@gmail.com
Pantilat
Steven Z
SZ
Meltzer
David
D
Schnipper
Jeffrey
J
Kaboli
Peter
P
Wetterneck
Tosha B
TB
Gonzales
David
D
Arora
Vineet
V
Zhang
James
J
Auerbach
Andrew D
AD
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation; D003142:Communication; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D020445:Hospitalists; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010343:Patient Admission; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors