An ‘Open House Discussion with the Experts’, by Kasturba Hospital, Manipal
The Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, conducted a one of a kind focused group discussion with renowned experts to simplify and clarify the nuances of the ethical, legal and moral obligations in managing patients with critical illness in a hospital setting on Friday, 4th March, 2022.
An eminent and stellar panel represented by Dr Rajkumar Mani (Director of Clinical Services, and Head, Critical Care Services and Pulmonology, Yashoda Superspeciality Hospital, New Delhi), Dr Rajesh Mohan Shetty (Chief, Clinical Services, and Head, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Manipal Hospital Whitefield, Bengaluru), Dr Roop Gursahani (Senior Consultant, Neurologist and Epileptologist, PD Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai), Dr Srinagesh Simha (Medical Director, Karunashraya, Bengaluru) and Dr Dhvani Mehta (Lead, Health, Vidhi Center for Legal Policy, New Delhi), discussed topics such as High-risk discharge against Medical Advice, Critical Care Review Board, and the legality of withholding or withdrawing life sustaining treatments.
Several real life case scenarios (identities hidden) were discussed to highlight the important aspects of, prognostication in critical illnesses, handling communication challenges with families, and decision-making regarding the continuation or limiting life sustaining treatments. Discussions also revolved around the legal implications of discharge against medical advice along with a plea to consider discussing the risks of such unethical and irrational decisions, which are taken by both the families and the clinicians, on some occasions.
The Kasturba Hospital Team, also presented an overview of their Critical Care Review Board. The team shared that this Board was one of the firsts in the region to have representatives from not only the various subspecialties in medicine, but also from the hospital administration and palliative medicine department to discuss the cases of those patients’ who have been admitted in the ICU for over 7 days and to take decisions regarding the continuation of active treatment, time limited trials, referral to palliative medicine, and to discuss prognosis or explore the family’s goals.
The interactive session was attended by physicians from the various subspecialties of medicine, nephrology, neurology, critical care medicine, emergency medicines, oncology and the likes.
Please click here to view the recording from the event.