Racial Differences in Physicians’ Shared Decision-Making Behaviors during Intensive Care Unit Family Meetings
HyunBin You, Jessica Ma, Marie C. Haverfield, Tolu O. Oyesanya, Sharron L. Docherty, Kimberly S. Johnson, Christopher E. Cox, Deepshikha Charan Ashana
Abstract
To the Editor: Shared decision making (SDM) facilitates collaborative treatment decisions based on patient and family values, goals, and preferences (1).In intensive care unit (ICU) settings, effective SDM results in goal-concordant treatment decisions, improved psychological outcomes among families and clinicians, and shorter ICU lengths of stay (1-7).Despite evidence of racial disparities in clinician communication and ICU outcomes, it is unknown if ICU clinicians equitably engage racially minoritized families in SDM (8-10).Thus, our objective was to compare ICU physicians' SDM behaviors in audio-recorded meetings with Black versus White families. Methods