When a patient is placed on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), usually emergently, families have begun to face the gravity of the situation. Suddenly, ECMO offers new hope. Even though the primary team explains ECMO will be a time-limited trial and a bridge to recovery, transplant, or device, many families remain focused only on the possibility of hope.

Hospitals may need to afford more procedural due process when deciding on whether to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment without consent.

Rates increased over time, from about one in 10 patients 20 years ago to about one in three patients in the past five years. The exact reasons for this increase remain unclear.

Researchers provide guidance to worried family members who may not know how to act in the intimidating ICU setting.

ICU deaths declined 2% steadily annually at non-minority hospitals, according to a recent report. This was not true of minority-serving hospitals. Those hospitals also reported longer lengths of stay and more critical illness than non-minority hospitals.

In 2016, a suburban California emergency department began working on a new alert process designed to ensure medical patients not covered by alerts already in place would receive the same type of rapid, timely response that other alerts trigger. The resulting approach, dubbed “code critical,” has proven successful at accelerating care to a broad category of critically ill patients.

Certain hospitals are including information on their critical care triage policies in admission packets to explain how care or supplies will be allocated if rationing becomes necessary. Some clinicians feel ethically obligated to inform everyone up front of the possibility. Others think it is better to do so only if and when it becomes necessary.