"Taking over somebody's life": Experiences of surrogate decision-makers in the surgical intensive care unit.

Background: Impaired capacity of patients necessitates the use of surrogates to make decisions on behalf of patients. Little is known about surrogate decision-making in the surgical intensive care unit, where the decline to critical illness is often unexpected. We sought to explore surrogate experiences with decision-making in the surgical intensive care unit.

The Need to Consider Longer-term Outcomes of Care: Racial/Ethnic Disparities Among Adult and Older Adult Emergency General Surgery Patients at 30, 90, and 180 Days.

Objectives: Following calls from the National Institutes of Health and American College of Surgeons for "urgently needed" research, the objectives of the present study were to (1) ascertain whether differences in 30/90/180-day mortality, major morbidity, and unplanned readmissions exist among adult (18-64 yr) and older adult (≥65 yr) emergency general surgery (EGS) patients; (2) vary by diagnostic category; and (3) are explained by variations in insurance, income, teaching status, hospital EGS volume, and a hospital's proportion of minority patients.

Background: Racial/ethnic disparities have been described in in-hospital and 30-day settings. How longer-term outcomes compare-a critical consideration for the lived experience of patients-has, however, only been limitedly considered.