Michael Weinstein, MD, FACS, FCCP, speaks with Jared Chiarchiaro, MD, about the article, “Quality of Communication in the ICU and Surrogate’s Understanding of Prognosis*,” published in Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Chiarchiaro is a Fellow and Postdoctoral Scholar in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine and the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The authors found that although most surrogates rate the quality of prognostic communication high, inaccurate expectations about prognosis are common among surrogates. Surrogates’ ratings of the quality of prognostic communication do not reliably predict an accurate expectation about prognosis.
