BMJ  2004;329 (21 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7463.0

Patients' personalities affect admission to ICU

Doctors may be using unfair criteria to admit patients to intensive care units. Evaluating 232 questionnaires from intensive care doctors in Switzerland, Escher and colleagues (p 425) found that the availability of beds, the prognosis, wishes of the patients, age, and personality influenced their decisions on admission to intensive care units. Doctors did not discriminate against patients with low socioeconomic status, psychiatric illness, or cancer. They must be aware of unconscious value judgments about personality, say the authors, to avoid unfair treatment of patients.

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