Making Medical Treatment Decisions for Unrepresented Hospitalized Patients

A 2020 joint statement by the American Thoracic Society/American Geriatrics Society (ATS/AGS) helpfully offers guidance on designing policies governing decision making for unrepresented patients who lack capacity to make their own decisions and have no identified surrogate decision maker.1 However, the statement is limited in two respects. First, it focuses on only patients in Intensive Care Units (ICU). Second, it focuses on withdrawing life-sustaining treatments.
Source: The American Journal of Medicine - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research