Archives of gerontology and geriatrics
-
Arch Gerontol Geriatr · May 2018
Multicenter StudyEfficacy of a tool to predict short-term mortality in older people presenting at emergency departments: Protocol for a multi-centre cohort study.
Prognostic uncertainty inhibits clinicians from initiating timely end-of-life discussions and advance care planning. This study evaluates the efficacy of the CriSTAL (Criteria for Screening and Triaging to Appropriate aLternative care) checklist in emergency departments. ⋯ The CriSTAL checklist is an objective and practical tool for use in emergency departments among older patients to determine individual probability of death in the short-term. Its validation in this cohort is expected to reduce clinicians' prognostic uncertainty on the time to patients' death and encourage timely end-of-life conversations to support clinical decisions with older frail patients and their families about their imminent or future care choices.