This recent article in the New York Times by Dr. Dhruv Khullar argues in favor of (a) palliative care that is driven by patient need, not disease prognosis, and (b) earlier conversations about patients’ goals at the end of life.
Dr. Khullar makes the point that: “Despite growing recognition that more care isn’t necessarily better care, particularly at the end of life, many Americans still receive an enormous dose of medicine in their final days.”
Some data shared in the article include:
* “On average, patients make 29 visits to the doctor’s office in their last six months.”
* “In their last month alone, half of Medicare patients go to an emergency department, one-third are admitted to an I.C.U., and one-fifth will have surgery — even though 80 percent of patients say they hope to avoid hospitalization and intensive care at the end of life.”
* “Medicare spending for patients in the last year of life is six times what it is for other patients, and accounts for a quarter of the total Medicare budget — a proportion that has remained essentially unchanged for the past three decades.”
Here are a few more excerpts:
* “Two interventions have consistently been shown to help patients live their final days in accordance with their wishes: earlier conversations about their goals and greater use of palliative care services, which emphasize symptom control and greater psychological and spiritual well-being — and which recognize that longer survival is only part of what patients want.”
* There is a push underway “to separate palliative care from end-of-life care. Many argue that palliative care…should be considered at any stage of a serious illness — not just at the end. Its use should be driven by patient need, not disease prognosis. … The vast majority of patients say they would want palliative care for themselves and their family members if understood as an ‘extra layer of support’ during serious illness.”
* “But physicians still tend to conflate palliative care with hospice care, and many don’t feel comfortable engaging in these delicate discussions.”
Here’s a link to the full article:
www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/ups
End-of-Life Care
We’re Bad at Death. Can We Talk?
Dhruv Khullar
May 10, 2017
The New York Times