No More Resuscitation a la Carte: Towards a Universal, Simple, Ethical, and Medically Sound Code Status Ordering

Abstract

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a commonly performed intervention in clinical medicine and determining a patient’s code status is paramount. “Limited/partial code” has crept into medical practice throughout the years and has become an acceptable practice. We describe here a tiered, clinically sounds and ethical code status ordering that includes the main elements of resuscitation, helps with establishing goals of care, eliminates the use of “limited/partial code,” facilitates shared decision-making with patients and surrogates and is easy to communicate to healthcare team members.