ArticleBMC health services research2026
Unravelling the complexities of end-of-life critical care interventions: what drives medico-legal complaints to physicians?
Article in BMC health services research, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThis study sought to describe the key medico-legal issues associated with end-of-life critical care interventions in Canada. We explored the most common themes of a disagreement between patients or substitute decision makers (SDM) and treating physicians related to intervention decisions, and complaints against physicians, that were identified and criticised by peer experts as contributing to medico-legal risk.
methodsA national repository was retrospectively searched for cases involving end-of-life care that were supported by the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) between 2018 and 2022. The study involved patients admitted to surgical and medical intensive and critical care units, emergency departments and residents in long term care settings. The frequencies and proportions of the top risk factors leading to medico-legal risks and the most frequent allegations were calculated by exploring factors that contributed to each incident.
resultsWe identified 93 eligible cases, involving 142 physicians. Family medicine was the most frequent specialty named in 32% of the cases. The median age of 93 unique patients was 78 years. Common reasons for complaints were communication breakdown between a physician and a patient/SDM and deficient assessment. The most frequent contributing factors criticised by peer experts were communication breakdown between a physician and a patient/SDM and inadequate documentation.
conclusionsThe most common omission identified by peer experts involved a physician’s communication with a patient/SDM. Physicians may reduce their medico-legal risk by exploring effective techniques for optimal communication to improve understanding in end-of-life discussions, with the goal of high-quality patient care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.