On Death, Dying and DNR

In this episode, we discuss advanced care planning & end of life discussions with one of our intensivists, Craig Patterson, MD. 

Every one of these discussions should begin with figuring out the patient's/family members'/POA's understanding of the disease process/prognosis.

 

Code status is what we do when the heart stops or the patient stops breathing. Everything else is a medical decision - i.e. shouldn't tie up "do not resuscitate" with the decision to dialyze or not.

 

We have eliminated the terms allow natural death (AND) and partial code from our institution and instead use do not resuscitate (DNR).

 

GA Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Form can be found here.