• D K Morhaim and M B Heller.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Franklin Square Hospital Center, Baltimore, Maryland 21237.
• J Emerg Med. 1991 Nov 1; 9 (6): 515-8.

AbstractThere are few data available regarding the emergency department practice of using recently dead patients (RDP) for practice and training in endotracheal intubation (ETI/RDP). We investigated several aspects of practice by means of a survey sent to all 5,397 emergency departments in the country. Of the 992 (18.3%) responses, 537 (54.1%) did practice ETI/RDP; 455 (45.8%) did not (P less than 0.005). ETI/RDP was used significantly more commonly for instruction of paramedics (411 institutions [77%]), than for other classes of health providers (P less than 0.0001). Overall, only 69 emergency departments (7%) had any written policy governing ETI/RDP; even among those actually practicing ETI/RDP, 84% had no written policy. Likewise, patients and families were rarely informed of the practice. In institutions where ETI/RDP does occur, only 15 (3%) of emergency departments have a policy which mandates such notification. There was widespread agreement as to the educational value of the practice, although it was more favored in hospitals practicing ETI/RDP than those that do not: 411 of 418 (98%) hospitals practicing ETI/RDP agreed that it was an important component of medical education, as did 240 (80%) of institutions not practicing it (P less than 0.0001). Nearly equal percentages of teaching hospitals (53.8%) and nonteaching facilities (57.9%) engage in ETI/RDP (P = 0.35). Objections to ETI/RDP had been noted in 25% of the institutions where it was practiced.

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