Misinformation about resuscitation among physicians and the public:

Patients and physicians are unaware of the relative futility of cardiac resuscitation. This needs to change to enable patients to make informed decisions about end-of-life care.

Elderly Patients:

“An oral standardized survey was administered to 100 patients aged 70 years or older. Patients were randomly selected from the emergency department, internal medicine clinic, and general medical wards at one urban medical center.”
Results: “Most respondents (81%) believed that their chance of surviving inpatient CPR and leaving the hospital was 50% or better, and 23% of those respondents believed that their chance was 90% or better.”

THE TRUTH: about 5-10% survive to hospital discharge and about half of those have some brain injury. (The Truth About Resuscitation)

 Physicians:

Most physicians do not know the success rate of in-hospital resuscitation.

Accurate in-hospital cardiac arrest estimates [% (95% CI)] of survival were provided by 51.1% (36.8-63.4%), 47.3% (35.9-58.7%), and 36.7% (23.2-50.2%) of students, residents, and attending physicians, respectively.

Education Required:

Physicians and the general public need to know the facts about end-of-life care. They need to have a much better understanding of the success rates of resuscitation so they can make informed decisions.

Medicare could undertake an educational campaign targeting physicians on one hand and the public on the other. Medicare could advocate Continuing Medical Education on end-of-life issues for all providers.