Documentation of resuscitation status in an ambulatory palliative care population: results of a prospective observational study from a tertiary cancer care centre in Pakistan.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: It was observed in our hospital that a lot of patients with advanced progressive disease were being seen in the palliative care clinics without documentation of their resuscitation status. AIM: To assess the documentation of resuscitation in patients referred to palliative care clinic. METHODS: Retrospective review of medical records of patients referred to the palliative care clinic was done looking for evidence of documentation of code status. RESULTS: Only 77 of the 316 patients seen in clinic during this period had any documentation of code status. More than half of these had been referred by the internists who had documented the code status as well. CONCLUSIONS: As a result of the study, we have introduced changes aimed at ensuring better documentation of resuscitation status.