Sharon Kirkey
The Montreal Gazette
Published on 08.27.2015
Quebec doctors will soon be given standardized kits with which to end the lives of patients seeking euthanasia — including drugs to calm the nerves and stop the breathing — along with detailed instructions as the province prepares to usher in legalized aid in dying.
The Collège des médecins du Québec has developed a new guideline for doctors unlike any in the history of Canadian medicine: a step-by-step guide to follow before, during and after administering euthanasia to an eligible patient, including the type of drugs to be used, the dose, the injection site and what to do in the event of complications.
The guideline, which was developed in collaboration with the Order of Pharmacists of Quebec and the Order of Nurses of Quebec, will be available to doctors, nurses and other health professionals on a secure area of the college’s website. “We don’t want these recipes made too easily available to everyone,” college secretary Dr. Yves Robert told the Post.
In December, Quebec will become the first jurisdiction in the country to allow competent adults experiencing intolerable suffering at the end of life to request “medical aid in dying.”
The entire article is here.
Showing posts with label End of Life Issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label End of Life Issues. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Euthanasia cases more than double in northern Belgium
By Raf Casert
Associated Press
Originally published March 17, 2015
Almost one in 20 people in northern Belgium died using euthanasia in 2013, more than doubling the numbers in six years, a study released Tuesday showed.
The universities of Ghent and Brussels found that since euthanasia was legalized in 2002, the acceptance of ending a life at the patient’s request has greatly increased. While a 2007 survey showed only 1.9 percent of deaths from euthanasia in the region, the figure was 4.6 percent in 2013.
The entire article is here.
Associated Press
Originally published March 17, 2015
Almost one in 20 people in northern Belgium died using euthanasia in 2013, more than doubling the numbers in six years, a study released Tuesday showed.
The universities of Ghent and Brussels found that since euthanasia was legalized in 2002, the acceptance of ending a life at the patient’s request has greatly increased. While a 2007 survey showed only 1.9 percent of deaths from euthanasia in the region, the figure was 4.6 percent in 2013.
The entire article is here.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
The Gray Areas Of Assisted Suicide
By April Dembosky
Kaiser Health News
Originally published May 21, 2015
Here is an excerpt:
People don’t talk about it, but it happens. Just over 3 percent of U.S. doctors said they have written a prescription for life-ending medication, according to an anonymous survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1998. Almost 5 percent of doctors reported giving a patient a lethal injection.
Other studies suggest oncologists, and doctors on the West Coast, are more likely to be asked for life-ending medication, or euthanasia, in which the doctor administers the lethal dose.
“Those practices are undercover. They are covert,” says Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, an advocacy group. “To the degree that patients are part of the decision-making, it is by winks and nods.”
Coombs Lee’s organization helped tell the story of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman who moved from California to Oregon to be able to end her life legally after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Now the organization is backing legislation in California to make it legal for doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who request it.
The entire article is here.
Kaiser Health News
Originally published May 21, 2015
Here is an excerpt:
People don’t talk about it, but it happens. Just over 3 percent of U.S. doctors said they have written a prescription for life-ending medication, according to an anonymous survey published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1998. Almost 5 percent of doctors reported giving a patient a lethal injection.
Other studies suggest oncologists, and doctors on the West Coast, are more likely to be asked for life-ending medication, or euthanasia, in which the doctor administers the lethal dose.
“Those practices are undercover. They are covert,” says Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, an advocacy group. “To the degree that patients are part of the decision-making, it is by winks and nods.”
Coombs Lee’s organization helped tell the story of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman who moved from California to Oregon to be able to end her life legally after she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Now the organization is backing legislation in California to make it legal for doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients who request it.
The entire article is here.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Is Age a Determinant Variable in Forgoing Treatment Decisions at the End of Life?
Guest post by Sandra Martins Pereira, Roeline Pasman and Bregje Onwuteaka-Philipsen
Journal of Medical Ethics Blog
Originally posted May 14, 2015
Decisions to forgo treatment are embedded in clinical, socio-cultural, philosophical, religious, legal and ethical contexts and beliefs, and they cannot be considered as representing good or poor quality care. Particularly for older people, it is sometimes argued that treatment is aggressive, and that there may be a tendency to continue or start treatments in situations where a shift to a focus on quality of life in light of a limited life expectancy might be preferred. Others argue that an attitude of ageism might prevent older people from receiving treatments and care from which they could benefit, thus resulting in some type of harm and compromising the ethical principles of beneficence and non-maleficence.
When the need to make a decision about treatment concerns an older person at the end of life, physicians need to reflect on the following questions: In this situation, for this person, what is the best course of action? Is this person capable of assessing the situation and making a decision about it adequately herself? What are the preferences of the person? Who needs to be involved in the decision-making process? What will be the consequences of starting or withholding this treatment?
The blog post is here.
The paper is here.
Journal of Medical Ethics Blog
Originally posted May 14, 2015
Decisions to forgo treatment are embedded in clinical, socio-cultural, philosophical, religious, legal and ethical contexts and beliefs, and they cannot be considered as representing good or poor quality care. Particularly for older people, it is sometimes argued that treatment is aggressive, and that there may be a tendency to continue or start treatments in situations where a shift to a focus on quality of life in light of a limited life expectancy might be preferred. Others argue that an attitude of ageism might prevent older people from receiving treatments and care from which they could benefit, thus resulting in some type of harm and compromising the ethical principles of beneficence and non-maleficence.
When the need to make a decision about treatment concerns an older person at the end of life, physicians need to reflect on the following questions: In this situation, for this person, what is the best course of action? Is this person capable of assessing the situation and making a decision about it adequately herself? What are the preferences of the person? Who needs to be involved in the decision-making process? What will be the consequences of starting or withholding this treatment?
The blog post is here.
The paper is here.
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Which Doctors Should ‘Own’ End-of-Life Planning?
By Randi Belisomo
Medscsape
February 12, 2015
The duty to guide patients through the end-of-life decision-making process rests squarely on primary care providers, writes one internist in The New England Journal of Medicine in a February 11 online article, maintaining that her colleagues should better support seriously ill patients earlier and throughout the course of disease.
Susan Tolle, director of the Center for Ethics in Health Care at the Oregon Health and Science University, is one of three physicians responding to the NEJM's most recent "Clinical Decisions" case feature, detailing a woman undergoing treatment for metastatic breast cancer. However, her advance directive has not been reviewed in close to a decade.
The entire article is here.
Medscsape
February 12, 2015
The duty to guide patients through the end-of-life decision-making process rests squarely on primary care providers, writes one internist in The New England Journal of Medicine in a February 11 online article, maintaining that her colleagues should better support seriously ill patients earlier and throughout the course of disease.
Susan Tolle, director of the Center for Ethics in Health Care at the Oregon Health and Science University, is one of three physicians responding to the NEJM's most recent "Clinical Decisions" case feature, detailing a woman undergoing treatment for metastatic breast cancer. However, her advance directive has not been reviewed in close to a decade.
The entire article is here.
Sunday, December 21, 2014
‘‘End-of-life” biases in moral evaluations of others
By George E. Newman, Kristi L. Lockhart, Frank C. Keil
Cognition, in press
Abstract
When evaluating the moral character of others, people show a strong bias to more heavily weigh behaviors at the end of an individual’s life, even if those behaviors arise in light of an overwhelmingly longer duration of contradictory behavior. Across four experiments, we find that this ‘‘end-of-life” bias uniquely applies to intentional changes in behavior that immediately precede death, and appears to result from the inference that the behavioral change reflects the emergence of the individual’s ‘‘true self”.
The entire article is here.
Cognition, in press
Abstract
When evaluating the moral character of others, people show a strong bias to more heavily weigh behaviors at the end of an individual’s life, even if those behaviors arise in light of an overwhelmingly longer duration of contradictory behavior. Across four experiments, we find that this ‘‘end-of-life” bias uniquely applies to intentional changes in behavior that immediately precede death, and appears to result from the inference that the behavioral change reflects the emergence of the individual’s ‘‘true self”.
The entire article is here.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Panel Urges Overhauling Health Care at End of Life
By Pam Belluck
The New York Times
Originally posted on September 17, 2014
The country’s system for handling end-of-life care is largely broken and should be overhauled at almost every level, a national panel concluded in a report released on Wednesday.
The 21-member nonpartisan committee, appointed by the Institute of Medicine, the independent research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, called for sweeping change.
“The bottom line is the health care system is poorly designed to meet the needs of patients near the end of life,” said David M. Walker, a Republican and a former United States comptroller general, who was a chairman of the panel. “The current system is geared towards doing more, more, more, and that system by definition is not necessarily consistent with what patients want, and is also more costly.”
The entire article is here.
The New York Times
Originally posted on September 17, 2014
The country’s system for handling end-of-life care is largely broken and should be overhauled at almost every level, a national panel concluded in a report released on Wednesday.
The 21-member nonpartisan committee, appointed by the Institute of Medicine, the independent research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, called for sweeping change.
“The bottom line is the health care system is poorly designed to meet the needs of patients near the end of life,” said David M. Walker, a Republican and a former United States comptroller general, who was a chairman of the panel. “The current system is geared towards doing more, more, more, and that system by definition is not necessarily consistent with what patients want, and is also more costly.”
The entire article is here.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Medicare considers funding end-of-life talks
By Pam Belluck
The New York Times
Originally published August 31, 2014
Five years after it exploded into a political conflagration over “death panels,” the issue of paying doctors to talk to patients about end-of-life care is making a comeback, and such sessions may be covered for the 50 million Americans on Medicare as early as next year.
Bypassing the political process, private insurers have begun reimbursing doctors for these “advance care planning” conversations as interest in them rises along with the number of aging Americans.
The entire article is here.
Editorial note: Politics will continue to affect health care delivery in the United States. It is critical that healthcare providers cite foundational ethical principles when advocating for changes in our healthcare system, and not become immersed in sloganeering or bumper sticker politics to support one political party or the other. High quality health care and informed patient choice are paramount.
The New York Times
Originally published August 31, 2014
Five years after it exploded into a political conflagration over “death panels,” the issue of paying doctors to talk to patients about end-of-life care is making a comeback, and such sessions may be covered for the 50 million Americans on Medicare as early as next year.
Bypassing the political process, private insurers have begun reimbursing doctors for these “advance care planning” conversations as interest in them rises along with the number of aging Americans.
The entire article is here.
Editorial note: Politics will continue to affect health care delivery in the United States. It is critical that healthcare providers cite foundational ethical principles when advocating for changes in our healthcare system, and not become immersed in sloganeering or bumper sticker politics to support one political party or the other. High quality health care and informed patient choice are paramount.
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Hospice and Access to Medications - New CMS Guidance
Center for Medicare Advocacy
Originally posted April 10, 2014
Here are some excerpts:
Summary
Medications that should be covered by the Medicare Hospice Benefit are sometimes paid for by the insurance companies that administer Medicare Part D plans. To prevent this from happening, effective May 1, 2014, all prescribed medications for hospice patients billed to Medicare Part D will initially be denied coverage. To get their medications, hospice patients will have to initiate and ultimately succeed at a Medicare appeal. In other words, to protect insurance companies, dying patients will have to jump through hoops to get medically necessary, potentially life-sustaining medications.
(cut)
Conclusion
This burden-shifting to the dying patient is illogical and immoral.
CMS has erred in assuming that most hospice patients will not continue to have Part D covered medications. Most older Americans are on medications for chronic conditions, and some of these medications...
The entire article is here.
Thanks to Deborah Derrickson Kossmann for this information.
Originally posted April 10, 2014
Here are some excerpts:
Summary
Medications that should be covered by the Medicare Hospice Benefit are sometimes paid for by the insurance companies that administer Medicare Part D plans. To prevent this from happening, effective May 1, 2014, all prescribed medications for hospice patients billed to Medicare Part D will initially be denied coverage. To get their medications, hospice patients will have to initiate and ultimately succeed at a Medicare appeal. In other words, to protect insurance companies, dying patients will have to jump through hoops to get medically necessary, potentially life-sustaining medications.
(cut)
Conclusion
This burden-shifting to the dying patient is illogical and immoral.
CMS has erred in assuming that most hospice patients will not continue to have Part D covered medications. Most older Americans are on medications for chronic conditions, and some of these medications...
The entire article is here.
Thanks to Deborah Derrickson Kossmann for this information.
Belgium: accelerating down the slippery slope
By Michael Cook
Careful! A blog about end-of-life issues
Originally published April 13, 2014
Here is an excerpt:
The Society spells out its policy very carefully. It is not about grey areas like withdrawing burdensome or futile treatment or balancing pain relief against shortening a patient’s life. It clearly states that “shortening the dying process by administering sedatives beyond what is needed for patient comfort can be not only acceptable but in many cases desirable”.
“Shortening the dying process” is a euphemism for administering a lethal injection.
Most dying patients in intensive care have not made advance directives and “are usually not in a position to request euthanasia”. Therefore, “difficulty can arise when the purpose of the drugs used for comfort and pain relief in end-of-life management is misconstrued as deliberate use to speed the dying process.” The Society’s solution to this difficulty is to allow its members to kill the patients.
The entire story is here.
Thanks to Eric Affsprung for this information.
Careful! A blog about end-of-life issues
Originally published April 13, 2014
Here is an excerpt:
The Society spells out its policy very carefully. It is not about grey areas like withdrawing burdensome or futile treatment or balancing pain relief against shortening a patient’s life. It clearly states that “shortening the dying process by administering sedatives beyond what is needed for patient comfort can be not only acceptable but in many cases desirable”.
“Shortening the dying process” is a euphemism for administering a lethal injection.
Most dying patients in intensive care have not made advance directives and “are usually not in a position to request euthanasia”. Therefore, “difficulty can arise when the purpose of the drugs used for comfort and pain relief in end-of-life management is misconstrued as deliberate use to speed the dying process.” The Society’s solution to this difficulty is to allow its members to kill the patients.
The entire story is here.
Thanks to Eric Affsprung for this information.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Judge rules patients in New Mexico have fundamental right to get aid in dying
By Susan Montoya Bryan
Associated Press
Originally posted January 13, 2014
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A New Mexico judge has ruled some patients can choose a physician's aid in getting prescription medications to peacefully end their lives.
Second Judicial District Judge Nan Nash ruled Monday that the ability of competent, terminally ill patients to choose aid in dying is a fundamental right under the state constitution.
The entire article is here.
Associated Press
Originally posted January 13, 2014
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A New Mexico judge has ruled some patients can choose a physician's aid in getting prescription medications to peacefully end their lives.
Second Judicial District Judge Nan Nash ruled Monday that the ability of competent, terminally ill patients to choose aid in dying is a fundamental right under the state constitution.
The entire article is here.
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
At Issue in 2 Wrenching Cases: What to Do After the Brain Dies
By BENEDICT CAREY and DENISE GRADY
The New York Times
Originally posted January 9, 2014
In one way, the cases are polar opposites: the parents of Jahi McMath in Oakland, Calif., have fought to keep their daughter connected to a ventilator, while the parents and husband of Marlise Muñoz in Fort Worth, Tex., want desperately to turn the machine off. In another way, the cases are identical: both families have been shocked to learn that a loved one was declared brain-dead — and that hospital officials defied the family’s wishes for treatment.
Their wrenching stories raise questions about how brain death is determined, and who has the right to decide how such patients are treated.
The entire story is here.
The New York Times
Originally posted January 9, 2014
In one way, the cases are polar opposites: the parents of Jahi McMath in Oakland, Calif., have fought to keep their daughter connected to a ventilator, while the parents and husband of Marlise Muñoz in Fort Worth, Tex., want desperately to turn the machine off. In another way, the cases are identical: both families have been shocked to learn that a loved one was declared brain-dead — and that hospital officials defied the family’s wishes for treatment.
Their wrenching stories raise questions about how brain death is determined, and who has the right to decide how such patients are treated.
The entire story is here.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Family, ethics, medicine and law collide in Jahi McMath’s life — or death
By Cathy Lynn Grossman
Religion News
Originally posted January 3, 2014
Is Jahi McMath, the 13-year-old whose entire brain has ceased to function, dead or alive?
Must doctors at a California hospital operate to prepare her for a move to a care facility in New York even though the hospital insists she is dead? No doctor can be compelled to treat the dead.
Or is she alive now and wanting to live on? Her mother, Nailah Winkfield, insists that removing the life-support machinery, which is performing all Jahi’s bodily functions, is the same as killing her daughter. Only a court order keeps Jahi still on life support, and that order expires on Tuesday (Jan. 7).
On Friday, a federal magistrate was expected to begin mediating the three-week-long dispute between Children’s Hospital & Research Center in Oakland and Jahi’s parents. But the battle goes beyond the courtroom, the hospital, and Jahi’s family because American society still struggles with defining death.
The entire article is here.
Religion News
Originally posted January 3, 2014
Is Jahi McMath, the 13-year-old whose entire brain has ceased to function, dead or alive?
Must doctors at a California hospital operate to prepare her for a move to a care facility in New York even though the hospital insists she is dead? No doctor can be compelled to treat the dead.
Or is she alive now and wanting to live on? Her mother, Nailah Winkfield, insists that removing the life-support machinery, which is performing all Jahi’s bodily functions, is the same as killing her daughter. Only a court order keeps Jahi still on life support, and that order expires on Tuesday (Jan. 7).
On Friday, a federal magistrate was expected to begin mediating the three-week-long dispute between Children’s Hospital & Research Center in Oakland and Jahi’s parents. But the battle goes beyond the courtroom, the hospital, and Jahi’s family because American society still struggles with defining death.
The entire article is here.
Terri Schiavo's family joins family of teen Jahi McMath in fight over life support
By Josh Levs, Catherine E. Shoichet and Caleb Hellerman, CNN
Originally published January 2, 2014
(CNN) -- The family of Terri Schiavo has joined the battle over Jahi McMath, a 13-year-old girl on life support who has been declared dead by doctors.
"Together with our team of experts, Terri's Network believes Jahi's case is representative of a very deep problem within the U.S. healthcare system -- particularly those issues surrounding the deaths of patients within the confines of hospital corporations, which have a vested financial interest in discontinuing life," the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network said in a prepared statement.
The entire story is here
.
Originally published January 2, 2014
(CNN) -- The family of Terri Schiavo has joined the battle over Jahi McMath, a 13-year-old girl on life support who has been declared dead by doctors.
"Together with our team of experts, Terri's Network believes Jahi's case is representative of a very deep problem within the U.S. healthcare system -- particularly those issues surrounding the deaths of patients within the confines of hospital corporations, which have a vested financial interest in discontinuing life," the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network said in a prepared statement.
The entire story is here
.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Why Are Americans Scared to Talk About Dying?
The number of people with legal documents detailing how they want to die remains low, suggesting talk of death is still largely taboo.
By Marina Koren
The National Journal
Originally posted December 10, 2013
Imagine you're brain-dead. There was an accident, and your loved ones have gathered at your hospital bed to hear the doctors say there's not much else they can do. What would you want to happen?
It's a scenario that's as terrifying as it is unpredictable. The thought of it pushes some people to iron out end-of-life decisions long before it's too late, some when they're still healthy. They sign advance directives, legal documents, which include living wills and do-not-resuscitate orders, that outline what families and doctors can and can't do when people become patients.
In the United States, dying inside a hospital rather than at home may be more realistic than we'd care to admit. Still, many Americans tend to avoid talking about their own end-of-life wishes, according to new research published Tuesday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Of 7,946 people polled in a national health survey, just 26 percent had completed an advance directive.
The entire article is here.
By Marina Koren
The National Journal
Originally posted December 10, 2013
Imagine you're brain-dead. There was an accident, and your loved ones have gathered at your hospital bed to hear the doctors say there's not much else they can do. What would you want to happen?
It's a scenario that's as terrifying as it is unpredictable. The thought of it pushes some people to iron out end-of-life decisions long before it's too late, some when they're still healthy. They sign advance directives, legal documents, which include living wills and do-not-resuscitate orders, that outline what families and doctors can and can't do when people become patients.
In the United States, dying inside a hospital rather than at home may be more realistic than we'd care to admit. Still, many Americans tend to avoid talking about their own end-of-life wishes, according to new research published Tuesday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Of 7,946 people polled in a national health survey, just 26 percent had completed an advance directive.
The entire article is here.
Monday, December 9, 2013
Prolonging Life: Legal, Ethical, and Social Dilemmas
The Nour Foundation
Exploring Meaning and Commonality in Human Experience
An absolutely fascinating discussion on end of life issues.
Exploring Meaning and Commonality in Human Experience
An absolutely fascinating discussion on end of life issues.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Hiring an End-of-Life Enforcer
By Paula Span
The New York Times - The New Old Age
Originally published October 24, 2013
The chilling dilemma of “the unbefriended elderly,” who don’t have family or close friends to make medical decisions on their behalf if they can’t speak for themselves, generated a bunch of ideas the last time we discussed it.
One reader, Elizabeth from Los Angeles, commented that as an only child who had no children, she wished she could hire someone to take on this daunting but crucial responsibility.
“I would much rather pay a professional, whom I get to know and who knows me, to make the decisions,” she wrote. “That way it is an objective decision-maker based on the priorities I have discussed with him/her before my incapacitation.”
The entire article is here.
The New York Times - The New Old Age
Originally published October 24, 2013
The chilling dilemma of “the unbefriended elderly,” who don’t have family or close friends to make medical decisions on their behalf if they can’t speak for themselves, generated a bunch of ideas the last time we discussed it.
One reader, Elizabeth from Los Angeles, commented that as an only child who had no children, she wished she could hire someone to take on this daunting but crucial responsibility.
“I would much rather pay a professional, whom I get to know and who knows me, to make the decisions,” she wrote. “That way it is an objective decision-maker based on the priorities I have discussed with him/her before my incapacitation.”
The entire article is here.
Friday, October 11, 2013
When There’s No Family
By PAULA SPAN
The New York Times
Originally published September 23, 2013
I rarely write about advance directives and end-of-life discussions without a few readers asking, sometimes plaintively: What if you don’t have a family?
“The presumption is that everyone has someone available, someone most likely younger or in better health, and better able to carry out one’s wishes or make decisions with your guidance,” Cheryl from Westchester commented the last time the subject arose.
But not everyone does.
The entire story is here.
The New York Times
Originally published September 23, 2013
I rarely write about advance directives and end-of-life discussions without a few readers asking, sometimes plaintively: What if you don’t have a family?
“The presumption is that everyone has someone available, someone most likely younger or in better health, and better able to carry out one’s wishes or make decisions with your guidance,” Cheryl from Westchester commented the last time the subject arose.
But not everyone does.
The entire story is here.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
End of Life Decisions: Measuring Consciousness
By David DiSalvo
Forbes Magazine
Originally published August 17, 2013
An experimental tool designed to “peek” into a patient’s brain and find signs of consciousness could eventually give doctors a way to more accurately judge chances of recovery from serious brain trauma – and in the process change the nature of end-of-life decisions.
(cut)
This knowledge could potentially change the way end-of-life decisions are made by providing doctors and loved ones with a firmer means to evaluate whether a patient has the capacity to recover.
The entire story is here.
Forbes Magazine
Originally published August 17, 2013
An experimental tool designed to “peek” into a patient’s brain and find signs of consciousness could eventually give doctors a way to more accurately judge chances of recovery from serious brain trauma – and in the process change the nature of end-of-life decisions.
(cut)
This knowledge could potentially change the way end-of-life decisions are made by providing doctors and loved ones with a firmer means to evaluate whether a patient has the capacity to recover.
The entire story is here.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
End-of-Life Care Improves But Costs Increase, Study Finds
by E.J. Mitchell
The Medicare News Group
Originally published July 12, 2013
Improvements in end-of-life care have occurred rapidly for Medicare patients but costs have increased, according to a new Dartmouth Institute brief that was released today. The study revealed that beneficiaries in their last six months of life spent fewer days in the hospital and that more patients received hospice services in 2010 compared to 2007.
However, Medicare spending for chronically ill patients at the end of life increased more than 15 percent during that time period, while the consumer price index rose only 5.3 percent.
The data from the brief, which is through the Dartmouth Atlas Project, also found that in 2010 compared to 2007:
The Medicare News Group
Originally published July 12, 2013
Improvements in end-of-life care have occurred rapidly for Medicare patients but costs have increased, according to a new Dartmouth Institute brief that was released today. The study revealed that beneficiaries in their last six months of life spent fewer days in the hospital and that more patients received hospice services in 2010 compared to 2007.
However, Medicare spending for chronically ill patients at the end of life increased more than 15 percent during that time period, while the consumer price index rose only 5.3 percent.
The data from the brief, which is through the Dartmouth Atlas Project, also found that in 2010 compared to 2007:
- patients were less likely to die in the hospital;
- patients were as likely to spend time in intensive care units (ICUs) during the last six months of life;
- the variations in end-of-life care at some academic medical centers quickly changed;
- patients spent more days in hospice care; and
- patients were more likely to see more than 10 physicians during the last 6 months of life.
- The Dartmouth Atlas brief found that across hospitals improvement was variable, with some experiencing rapid change while others showed little improvement.
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