End-of-life care documentation program yields care benefits for nursing home residents, study finds
Jul 07, 2010
Nursing home residents who fill out forms through a certain end-of-life care documentation program are more likely to receive the care they request than those with only a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order,...
Skilled nursing facility guidance part of Arizona’s revised crisis care plan
By
Alicia Lasek
May 27, 2021
The revisions include guidance on honoring care and treatment preferences in federal skilled nursing facilities. The changes follow a complaint against the state brought by national and local disability...
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.
Improving end-of-life care begins with honoring patient preferences
By
Scott T. Shreve and Susan C. Miller
Aug 07, 2017
While hospitalizations and aggressive disease treatment are common in serious illness, hospice and palliative care specialists support patients through the entire trajectory of disease to include educating...
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.