Treatment in Critical Care that Is Perceived to Be Futile Is Common and Costly

Critical care specialists who assessed 1136 ICU patients judged that 80% never received futile treatment, 8.6% received probably futile treatment, 11% received futile treatment, and 1% received futile treatment only on the day they transitioned to palliative care. The most common reason treatment was perceived as futile was because burdens outweighed the benefits (58%), followed by the treatment could never reach the patient’s goals (51%), death was imminent (37%), and the patient would never be able to survive outside an ICU (36%). The average cost for one day of futile treatment was $4004, according to the JAMA Internal Medicine study.