Engaging patients and family members is crucial when there are documents specifying physician directives for life-threatening conditions. For clinicians, there are a handful of approaches to working ...

Healthcare treatment. Hospital preferences. End-of-life care. Some choices are too important to leave to chance—yet they often are. A recent poll found that only 46% of older adults in the U.S. had ...

The American Hospital Association estimates that half of Americans suffer from chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Following a diagnosis, many experience concerns about the ...

All adults should have an advance directive, and experts say that the elderly or seriously ill should also fill out a Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment form. These two forms specify your ...

More clinicians now use Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment forms to record care wishes for nursing facility residents, but whether the resulting conversations lead to high-quality care ...

A 92-year-old woman resides in an assisted-living facility in Oregon and has extensive inoperable coronary artery disease, becoming breathless moving from her bed to the chair. Capable of decisions, ...

No topic is a less likely conversation-starter than our eventual deaths. Still, there is a lot to talk about. When polled, about 90 percent of people presented with end-of-life scenarios prefer the ...

Question: I heard you speak recently and you said that “everyone over age 18 should have a will, power of attorney for finances and an Advance Health Care Directive.” I have those documents and have a ...

Oregon's end-of-life medical directive form, or POLST form, will no longer include the option of having a feeding tube. Feeding tubes are surgically inserted through the abdomen wall and deliver food.