Prevalence of ICU practices among 129 Pennsylvania hospitals
| NCP* end-of-life care domain | NQF† preferred practice | Level of evidence | Proportion with practice | |
| ICU programme, policy or practice | n (%) | |||
| Standard protocol for nurses to assess and chart patient symptoms | Structure/processes | Yes | C | 105 (81) |
| Private conference room for family meetings | Structure/processes | No | C | 75 (58) |
| Daily multidisciplinary rounds | Structure/processes | No | B | 65 (50) |
| Clinical protocols for symptom management | Physical aspects and structure/processes | Yes | A | 60 (47) |
| Clinical protocol for withdrawing/withholding life-sustaining treatments | Physical aspects and structure/processes | Yes | C | 52 (40) |
| Pastoral care representative visits without being called | Spiritual/religious aspects | Yes | C | 49 (38) |
| Regularly scheduled family meetings with attending physician | Structure/processes | Yes | A | 8 (6) |
ICU, intensive care unit.
↵* NCP: National Consensus Project's Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care.
↵† NQF: National Quality Forum's National framework and preferred practices for palliative and hospice care quality
‡ Estimated from an informal survey of national experts in end-of-life care; A, randomised clinical trial; B, observational study; C, expert recommendation.