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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| A prospective study of the efficacy of the physician order form for life-sustaining treatment | | Author(s) | Susan W Tolle, Virginia P Tilden, Christine A Nelson |
| Journal title | Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol 46, no 9, September 1998 |
| Pages | pp 1097-1102 |
| Keywords | Medical care ; Terminal care ; Dying ; Rights [elderly] ; Patients [nursing homes] ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | The Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST), a comprehensive, one-page order form, was developed to convey preferences for life-sustaining treatments during transfer from one care site to another. This study examined the extent to which the POLST form ensured that 180 nursing home residents' wishes were honoured for `do not resuscitate' requests and requests for transfer only if comfort measures fail. Results showed that no study subject received cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), intensive care unit (ICU) care, or ventilator support, and only 2% were hospitalised to extend care. Of the 38 subjects who died during the study year, 62% had an order for narcotic, and only 5% died in an acute care hospital. A total of 13% were hospitalised during the year. In 85% of all hospitalisations, patients were transferred because the nursing home could not control suffering. In 15% of hospitalisations, the transfer was to extend life, overriding the POLST orders. (AKM). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981210405 A |
| Classmark | LK: LV: CX: IKR: LHB:LF: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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