Do Life-sustaining Treatment Orders Match Patient and Surrogate Preferences? The Role of POLST.

ABSTRACT:

Background

It is essential to high-quality medical care that life-sustaining treatment orders match the current, values-based preferences of patients or their surrogate decision-makers. It is unknown whether concordance between orders and current preferences is higher when a POLST form is used compared to standard documentation practices.

Objective

To assess concordance between existing orders and current preferences for nursing facility residents with and without POLST forms.

Design

Chart review and interviews.

Setting

Forty Indiana nursing facilities (29 where POLST is used and 11 where POLST is not in use).

Participants

One hundred sixty-one residents able to provide consent and 197 surrogate decision-makers of incapacitated residents with and without

SUBMITTER: Hickman SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7878602 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature