Q&A: Clinical best practices when gauging residents’ end-of-life preferences — a POLST expert weighs...
By
Alicia Lasek
Apr 29, 2021
There’s a clear need to improve the quality of Physician’s Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, or POLST, in nursing homes, says Susan E. Hickman, Ph.D. An expert on the subject, she spoke with...
Panel endorses quality measures of palliative and end-of-life care
Feb 16, 2012
The National Quality Forum voted to endorse 14 quality measures regarding palliative and end-of-life care for patients and their families. The quality measures focus on areas of care including pain management,...
Feeding tubes at end of life should be last resort, researchers say
Jan 07, 2010
There is no real benefit to using feeding tubes to care for those approaching the end of life. They should be considered only as a last possible option, according to a report from the Royal College of...
Palliative care tool helps foster end-of-life conversations
By
Alicia Lasek
Oct 23, 2019
A new palliative care tool can help clinicians provide contextual medical advice and caregivers engage in end-of-life conversations.
Older Americans still reluctant to discuss end-of-life care but more putting wishes in writing
By
Elizabeth Newman
Nov 25, 2013
Almost a quarter of Americans over age 75 have not written down or talked to someone about their wishes for the end of life care, according to a new survey from Pew Research Group.
Obama issues memo to ensure that hospitals honor patients’ end-of-life wishes
Apr 20, 2010
A presidential memorandum aims to protect the rights of hospital patients on Medicare and Medicaid who are approaching the end of their lives.
New guidelines released for hospice patients with defibrillators
May 17, 2010
New guidelines covering implanted defibrillators in terminal patients should help patients, doctors and hospice caregivers decide how to proceed with end-of-life treatments, experts say.
Black patients less likely to seek hospice care than whites, researchers say
By
Alicia Lasek
Oct 29, 2020
Black patients seek substantially more intensive medical treatment in the last six months of life than whites, a study shows. The investigators recommend that more healthcare providers are trained to promote...
Study: Assumption endures that Black LTC residents’ proxies reluctant to engage in advance care planning
By
Alicia Lasek
Jan 27, 2022
Investigators have found a persistent assumption among nursing home clinicians, administrators and other staff that Black residents’ families prefer more intensive end-of-life interventions.
Caregivers may be focusing on ‘futile’ measures: Brown study
By
John Hall
Mar 23, 2015
New research concludes that nursing home caregivers well-versed in palliative care tend to focus less on possibly futile “aggressive” life-saving measures.