We don't talk to patients about their prognosis, but is any of this surprising?

The Surprise Question – “would you be surprised if this person were to die within the next 12 months?” is a prompt to consider advanced care planning and referral to palliative care. Prognosis remains a major driver of such decisions and so the ability of this simple question to identify those within the last year of life has been explored in a number of chronic diseases including heart failure. Despite being able to reliably identify nearly all patients within the last year of life, whilst also accurately identifying those unlikely to die, by asking whether death is possible (rather than probable) only aroun d half of those classified as “not surprised” die within 12 months.
Source: Journal of Cardiac Failure - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: research