Publications by authors named "Scott T Vasher"
Background: Medical mistrust may worsen communication between ICU surrogate decision-makers and intensivists. The prevalence of and risk factors for medical mistrust among surrogate decision-makers are not known.
Research Question: What are the potential sociodemographic risk factors for high medical mistrust among surrogate decision-makers of critically ill patients at high risk of death?
Study Design And Methods: In this pilot cross-sectional study conducted at a single academic medical center between August 2022 and August 2023, adult patients admitted to the medical ICU and their surrogate decision-makers were enrolled.
Importance: Professional guidelines have identified key communication skills for shared decision-making for critically ill patients, but it is unclear how intensivists interpret and implement them.
Objective: To compare the self-evaluations of intensivists reviewing transcripts of their own simulated intensive care unit family meetings with the evaluations of trained expert colleagues.
Design, Setting, And Participants: A posttrial web-based survey of intensivists was conducted between January and March 2019.
Importance: Discordance about prognosis between a patient's health care decision-making surrogate and the treating intensivist is common in the intensive care unit (ICU). Empowering families, friends, and caregivers of patients who are critically ill to make informed decisions about care is important, but it is unclear how best to communicate prognostic information to surrogates when a patient is expected to die.
Objective: To determine whether family members, who are often health care decision-making surrogates, interpret intensivists as being more optimistic when questions about prognosis in the ICU are answered indirectly.