Re:What are a hospital's costs?
by masklinn on Tuesday September 08, 2015 @10:46AM
(#10185979)
> Are we sure that there's a misunderstanding that death is a likely outcome
There isn't a misunderstanding that death is a likely outcome, there commonly is a misunderstanding of survival time. Gawande's book covers the subject of differing expectation between doctors and patients when discussing harsh treatment, patients think it'll give them months or years, doctors think weeks.
If that isn't explicitly put on the table — and it usually isn't — you can get drawn-out "medical fights" where the patient's quality of life is more or less negative.
There isn't a misunderstanding that death is a likely outcome, there commonly is a misunderstanding of survival time. Gawande's book covers the subject of differing expectation between doctors and patients when discussing harsh treatment, patients think it'll give them months or years, doctors think weeks.
If that isn't explicitly put on the table — and it usually isn't — you can get drawn-out "medical fights" where the patient's quality of life is more or less negative.
See also: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/health-science-techn...