The medical emergency team and end-of-life care: a pilot study.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To assess the characteristics of patients who died in a teaching hospital and the role of the medical emergency team (MET) in their end-of-life care. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of 105 deaths over the month of May 2005 by a blinded investigator, who documented patient age, parent hospital unit, comorbidities, presence and timing of not-for-resuscitation (NFR) designation, and presence and timing of first MET review. We analysed differences between medical versus surgical patients, NFR versus non-NFR patients, and MET-reviewed versus non-MET-reviewed patients. RESULTS: Of the 105 patients who died, 80 were medical patients and 25 were surgical patients. Five patient..