Researchers from Denver-based University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus found physicians die the same way as the rest of the population.
Five years ago, Ken Murray, MD, a retired family physician, published an essay, "How Doctors Die," which claimed physicians were more likely to die at home with fewer end-of-life interventions. After the essay went to the web, various hypothetical surveys of physicians as well as smaller preliminary studies backed Dr. Murray's claim.
In the study, researchers analyzed data from 9,947 deceased physicians and a random sample of 192,006 non-physicians between 2008 and 2010.
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society published the study's findings.
Here are six key findings:
1. In the last six months and one month of life, the number of physicians and non-physicians having at least one ICU stay was essentially the same.
2. The mean number of days subjects spent in the ICU in the final six months and one month of life was slightly greater for physicians.
3. Researchers found 46.4 percent of physicians and 43.2 percent of non-physicians enrolled in hospice care for the last six months of life.
4. Physicians used hospice care an average of 2.4 days more than their non-physician counterparts.
5. The number of physicians using hospice within seven days of death was slightly more than non-physicians.
6. Researchers claimed the findings defying Dr. Murray's claim may be due generational differences as the average age of the physicians studied was 83. Researchers wrote, "Many of these physicians trained and practiced medicine at a time before hospice or palliative care and before many of the technological advances in intensive care."
"We need to take a critical look at our healthcare system and ask what is driving this low value care and by that I mean care that doesn't offer any real quantity or quality of life," the researchers concluded. "And clearly, despite their medical knowledge, physicians are not immune. We hope our study will help spark a national conversation about this increasingly important issue."
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