Talking to family

OBJECTIVE: To compare characteristics of family conferences at the bedside vs. the conference room in the PICU. DESIGN: Single-site, cohort survey study. SETTING: Thirty-three bed academic PICU in an urban setting. PARTICIPANTS: Ten PICU physicians (90.9%) providing care to 29 patients whose families participated in 58 family conferences. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Family conferences, defined as a meeting involving the parent(s) of a PICU patient and the critical care attending physician to discuss a treatment decision, redirection of care from curative to palliative, or deliver bad news, occurred most commonly among families of the sickest patients...