Home Health & Hospice Week

Hospital patients at end of life need to have better communication with their physicians about issues like intensive treatments, according to a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Even after 48 hours in the Intensive Care Unit or on the ventilator, more than half of patients had no medical record documentation about goals of care or an attempt to pursue the topic, says the study. Another new study shows that doctors' orders help end-of-life patients get the care they want. Nursing home residents with Physicians Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) forms who said they wished to receive care primarily for pain relief were 59 percent less likely to receive unwanted treatments than those with only a "Do Not Resuscitate" order, according to the study in the July 2 Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. POLST forms address things like antibiotics, feeding tubes, and other interventions.