Impact of patient-centred and family-centred care meetings on intensive care and resource utilisation in patients with terminal illness: a single-centre retrospective observational study in Taiwan

Objective Shared decision making is essential for patients and their families when facing serious and life-threatening diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of patient-centred and family-centred care meetings (PFCCM) on intensive measures and resource utilisation during end-of-life (EOL) hospitalisation among terminally ill patients. Design and setting A retrospective cross-sectional study using electronic medical records was conducted in a tertiary referral medical centre in Taiwan. Participants We identified 6843 deceased patients with terminal illness who either received or did not receive PFCCM during EOL hospitalisation between January 2013 and December 2015. Primary and secondary outcome measures Patients who were transferred to the intensive care unit (ICU). Those who underwent invasive or non-invasive mechanical ventilation, tracheostomy, haemodialysis and surgical intervention during the final hospitalisation were determined by the use of intensive care measures; secondary measures were individual total and daily medical expenditures. A generalised estimating equation (GEE) model was used to compare the differences between the two groups. OR and beta coefficients (β) with 95% CI were estimated. Results This study identified 459 patients (6.7%) who received PFCCM during EOL hospitalisation. Multivariate analyses showed that patients who received PFCCM were less likely to have ICU admissions (OR 0.44, 95% CI 0.34 to 0.57), undergo surgical interventions (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.58 to 0.95) and invasive mechanical ventilation (OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.38 to 0.66) during the final hospitalisation, after adjusting for patient demographics, clinical conditions and year of admission. Additionally, a significant decrease in daily medical expenditures was observed in PFCCM patients (β −0.18, 95% CI −0.25 to −0.12) than in non-PFCCM patients. Conclusions Patient–physician discussion through PFCCM is associated with less intensive care utilisation and daily medical expenditure during EOL hospitalisation in terminally ill patients.