Deaths following withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy: Opportunities for quality improvement?

Mortality is an important trauma center outcome. With many patients initially surviving catastrophic injuries and a growing proportion of geriatric patients, many deaths might occur following withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (WLST). We utilized the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program database to explore whether deaths following WLST might be preventable and to evaluate the impact of excluding patients who died following WLST on hospital performance.

A retrospective cohort study was conducted using data derived from American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Program. Adult trauma patients treated at Levels I and II centers in 2016 were included. Three cohorts of deceased patients were created to assess differences in hospital performance. The first included all deaths, the second included only those who died without WLST, and the third included deaths without WLST and deaths with WLST where death was preceded by a major complication. Hospitals were ranked based on their observed-to-expected mortality ratio calculated using each of the three decedent cohorts. Outcomes included absolute change in hospital ranking and change in performance outlier status between cohorts.

We identified 275,939 patients treated at 447 centers who met inclusion criteria. Overall mortality was 6.9% (n = 19,145). Withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy preceded 43.6% (n = 8,343) of deaths and 23% (n = 1,920) of these patients experienced a major complication before death. The median absolute change in hospital performance rank between the first and second cohort was 58 (p < 0.001), between the first and third cohort was 44 (p < 0.001), and between the second and third cohort was 23 (p < 0.001). Hospital performance outlier status changed significantly between cohorts.

The exclusion of patients who die following WLST from benchmarking efforts leads to a major change in hospital ranks. Potentially preventable deaths, such as those following a major complication, should not be excluded.

Epidemiological study, level III.