Jennifer Moye, Andrew B Cohen, Kelly Stolzmann, Elizabeth J Auguste, Casey C Catlin, Zachary S Sager, Rachel E Weiskittle, Cindy B Woolverton, Heather L Connors, Jennifer L Sullivan
When ethics committees are consulted about patients who have or need court-appointed guardians, they lack empirical evidence about several common issues, including the relationship between guardianship and prolonged, potentially medically unnecessary hospitalizations for patients. To provide information about this issue, we conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses using a retrospective cohort from Veterans Healthcare Administration. To examine the relationship between guardianship appointment and hospital length of stay, we first compared 116 persons hospitalized prior to guardianship appointment to a comparison group (n = 348) 3:1 matched for age, diagnosis, date of admission, and comorbidity...
September 2023: HEC Forum