Medicine
A recent article by family physician Ken Murray in the Wall Street Journal, titled "Why Doctors Die Differently," observed that doctors are more likely than other people to decline end-of-life interventions that have little likelihood of benefit:
It's not something that we like to talk about, but doctors die, too. What's unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared with most Americans, but how little. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care that they could want. But they tend to go serenely and gently.
Doctors don't want to die any more than anyone else does. But they usually have talked about the limits of modern medicine with their families. They want to make sure that, when the time comes, no heroic measures are taken. During their last moments, they know, for instance, that they don't want someone breaking their ribs by performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (which is what happens when CPR is done right).
In a published survey of older physicians cited in the article, 64 percent of physicians had created an advanced directive, which Dr. Murray argues is essential to planning for end-of-life care: "Written directives can give patients far more control over how their lives end. But while most of us accept that taxes are inescapable, death is a much harder pill to swallow, which keeps the vast majority of Americans from making proper arrangements."
In the March 1st issue of American Family Physician, Drs. G. David Spoelhof and Barbara Elliott review strategies for implementing advance directives in office practice. The authors recommend that physicians have interactive discussions with patients regarding their end-of-life care preferences over multiple office visits, and they provide guidance for overcoming common patient- and physician-related barriers to completion of advance directives. A suggested approach for physicians is to bring up the topic of advance directives at routine visits for patients age 50 years or older and intensify discussions upon the diagnosis of a chronic and progressive illness such as cancer, heart failure, or dementia:
Following a realistic discussion of the patient's prognosis, the physician initiates a more in-depth discussion, including the proxy and family members as desired, that centers on the patient's care goals. Adding a values history to the advance directive may be helpful. After the discussion, the advance directive is updated and made as specific as possible. These issues should be readdressed periodically and as circumstances change. The last phase occurs with the onset of frailty or the need for long-term care. The discussion, centered on the patient's care goals, may result in consistent and specific physician orders regarding life-sustaining interventions.
To ensure that patients' end-of-life wishes are respected, advance directives should avoid vague language (e.g., "no heroics"), be shared with proxy decision-makers, and be made accessible in the medical record so that they are easily transferable to multiple levels of care.
**
The above post was originally published on the AFP Community Blog.
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Medicine
Addressing gaps in end-of-life planning
A recent article by family physician Ken Murray in the Wall Street Journal, titled "Why Doctors Die Differently," observed that doctors are more likely than other people to decline end-of-life interventions that have little likelihood of benefit:
It's not something that we like to talk about, but doctors die, too. What's unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared with most Americans, but how little. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care that they could want. But they tend to go serenely and gently.
Doctors don't want to die any more than anyone else does. But they usually have talked about the limits of modern medicine with their families. They want to make sure that, when the time comes, no heroic measures are taken. During their last moments, they know, for instance, that they don't want someone breaking their ribs by performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (which is what happens when CPR is done right).
In a published survey of older physicians cited in the article, 64 percent of physicians had created an advanced directive, which Dr. Murray argues is essential to planning for end-of-life care: "Written directives can give patients far more control over how their lives end. But while most of us accept that taxes are inescapable, death is a much harder pill to swallow, which keeps the vast majority of Americans from making proper arrangements."
In the March 1st issue of American Family Physician, Drs. G. David Spoelhof and Barbara Elliott review strategies for implementing advance directives in office practice. The authors recommend that physicians have interactive discussions with patients regarding their end-of-life care preferences over multiple office visits, and they provide guidance for overcoming common patient- and physician-related barriers to completion of advance directives. A suggested approach for physicians is to bring up the topic of advance directives at routine visits for patients age 50 years or older and intensify discussions upon the diagnosis of a chronic and progressive illness such as cancer, heart failure, or dementia:
Following a realistic discussion of the patient's prognosis, the physician initiates a more in-depth discussion, including the proxy and family members as desired, that centers on the patient's care goals. Adding a values history to the advance directive may be helpful. After the discussion, the advance directive is updated and made as specific as possible. These issues should be readdressed periodically and as circumstances change. The last phase occurs with the onset of frailty or the need for long-term care. The discussion, centered on the patient's care goals, may result in consistent and specific physician orders regarding life-sustaining interventions.
To ensure that patients' end-of-life wishes are respected, advance directives should avoid vague language (e.g., "no heroics"), be shared with proxy decision-makers, and be made accessible in the medical record so that they are easily transferable to multiple levels of care.
**
The above post was originally published on the AFP Community Blog.
- Advance Directives, Not "death Panels"
. The Sunday New York Times, August 16, 2009, has a plethora of health-reform-related articles and opinion pieces, including an op-ed by President Obama himself (ok, signed by himself), which articulately makes the case for health reform, (“Why we need...
- How Care Teams Can Support Shared Decision Making In Primary Care (2 Of 2)
Yesterday, I delivered the keynote speech at the Team Care Challenge, sponsored by the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, Medstro, and the American Resident Project. This is the second of two posts containing the text of my talk. Part 1 is posted...
- How Care Teams Can Support Shared Decision Making In Primary Care (1 Of 2)
Earlier this afternoon, I delivered the keynote speech at the Team Care Challenge, sponsored by the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, Medstro, and the American Resident Project. This is the first of two posts containing...
- Right-sizing The Care Of Patients With Serious Illness: It's About Time
Concerned about the overuse of ineffective or harmful practices in older patients with serious illnesses, the High Value Task Force of the American College of Physicians (ACP) recently published a synthesis of best practices on patient-centered communication...
- Managing Symptoms In End-of-life Care
Family physicians who care for terminally ill patients must manage a wide range of bothersome symptoms, including pain, fatigue, dyspnea, delirium, and constipation. According to a Cochrane for Clinicians article in the December 1st issue of American...