Guidelines for withholding and withdrawing therapy in the ICU: impact on decision-making process and interdisciplinary collaboration

INTRODUCTION: Interdisciplinary collaboration in end-of-life decision-making is challenging. Guidelines developed within the interdisciplinary team may help to clarify, describe, and obtain consensus on standards for end-of-life decision-making and care. The aim of the study was to develop, implement, and evaluate guidelines for withholding and withdrawing therapy in the intensive care unit. METHODS: An intervention study in two Danish intensive care units, evaluated in a pre-post design by a retrospective hospital record review and a questionnaire survey. The hospital record review included 1,665 patients at baseline (12-month review) and 897 patients after the intervention (6-month review). The questionnaire survey included 273 nurses, intensivists, and primary physicians at baseline and 229 post-intervention. RESULTS: For patients with therapy withdrawn, the median time from admission to first consideration on level of therapy decreased from 1.1 to 0.4 days (p=0.03), and the median time from admission to a withdrawal decision decreased from 3.1 to 1.1 days (p=0.02). Sixty-five percent of the participants who used the guidelines concerning end-of-life decision-making considered them helpful to high or very high extent. No significant changes were found in satisfaction with interdisciplinary collaboration or in withholding or withdrawing decisions being changed or unnecessarily postponed. The healthcare professionals’ perception of the care following withdrawal of therapy increased significantly after implementation of the guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates that working with guidelines for withholding and withdrawing therapy in the intensive care unit may facilitate improvements in end-of-life decision-making and patient care, but further studies are needed to provide robust evidence.