An Observational Study of Decision Making by Medical Intensivists.

OBJECTIVES

The ICU is a place of frequent, high-stakes decision making. However, the number and types of decisions made by intensivists have not been well characterized. We sought to describe intensivist decision making and determine how the number and types of decisions are affected by patient, provider, and systems factors.

DESIGN

Direct observation of intensivist decision making during patient rounds.

SETTING

Twenty-four-bed academic medical ICU.

SUBJECTS

Medical intensivists leading patient care rounds.

INTERVENTION

None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

During 920 observed patient rounds on 374 unique patients, intensivists made 8,174 critical care decisions (mean, 8.9 decisions per patient daily, 102.2 total decisions daily) over a mean of 3.7 hours. Patient factors associated with increased numbers of decisions included a shorter time since ICU admission and an earlier slot in rounding order (both p < 0.05). Intensivist identity explained the greatest proportion of variance in number of decisions per patient even when controlling for all other factors significant in bivariable regression. A given intensivist made more decisions per patient during days later in the 14-day rotation (p < 0.05). Female intensivists made significantly more decisions than male intensivists (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Intensivists made over 100 daily critical care decisions during rounds. The number of decisions was influenced by a variety of patient- and system-related factors and was highly variable among intensivists. Future work is needed to explore effects of the decision-making burden on providers' choices and on patient outcomes.