Better Ways to Communicate End of Life Wishes Subject of New Research Grant
Contact: Betsy Myers, Media Relations, (310) 275-4608; bmyers@picf.org
At End-of-Life: Better Ways to Communicate Nursing Home Residents’ Wishes Subject of New Partners Research Grant
With the goal of reducing needless suffering and unwanted care, nursing home patients and their families’ decisions will be honored in new model-of-care to be developed.
(San Fernando, California, October 6, 2008) — Too often, nursing home residents facing terminal illness are transferred to emergency rooms and subjected to aggressive and inappropriate treatment against their wishes. The passage of recent legislation in California and New York authorizing Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) has created a new era in respecting the end-of-life treatment preferences of nursing home residents and their families.
Hospice of Pasadena Legacy has taken the lead in this area with the announcement of its first grant to California-based Partners in Care Foundation (Partners; www.picf.org) to advance the agenda of funding work in quality of life and care at end-of-life. The initial project focuses on staff training and systems needed to effectively initiate the use of POLST in nursing homes POLST is a legally binding method for documenting the wishes of nursing home patients.
At the core of the POLST is a physician order form that reflects discussions with patients regarding their preferences and advance directives for later life care into written and official medical orders that can be followed by nursing facility staff. The POLST Paradigm was developed at the Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health & Science University by a multi-disciplinary task force, with representatives from numerous health care institutions and government organizations (www.polst.org).
The POLST form addresses the problem of preventing unwanted hospital transfer and intensive medical interventions for those whose requests were not legally documented or whose documents would not carry the same weight as physician orders. The form can ensure that intensive interventions are provided only for patients who request them with the legal strength of the POLST protecting both institutions and patients.
“To make POLST truly effective at the bedside, clinical and administrative nursing home staff members need to be trained in new methods, practices, policies and procedures,” noted June Simmons, President and CEO of the non-profit Partners, based in San Fernando, California. “With Hospice Legacy’s support of new directions in humane end-of-life care, the Partners team will provide extensive training for nursing facility clinical and administrative staff to improve their abilities to identify and address care preferences, and to ensure that the residents’ end-of-life care wishes are followed. In addition, systems will be identified to translate nursing facility residents’ current advance directives into POLST forms to increase adherence to their health care preferences.”
Partners will pilot the training program at a skilled nursing facility in the San Gabriel Valley.
Once the model is fully developed, it will be available for replication throughout the region and, eventually, the nation. The Partners team of an experienced physician, social work researcher, gerontologist, and medical anthropologist, all of whom have worked extensively in developing innovative models of end-of-life care, will work with the nursing facility’s staff to develop better systems for coordinating resident treatment preferences with other care providers, including the primary care physician, home-based caregiver, ER, and hospital.
Issues concerning patient wishes regarding resuscitation, transfer to hospitals, and other efforts to prolong life are also addressed with the patient’s family, physician and the facility’s administration and nursing staff. In the process, physicians’ communication skills concerning their patient preferences and understanding will be strengthened. To that end, Nancy Gibbs, M.D., Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California Regional Coordinator for Continuing Care and Geriatrics will serve as the project’s POLST physician-trainer.
“The project’s goal is to provide a tested method to make sure the patient’s and family’s agreed-upon decisions are respected and carried out,” says Ms. Simmons. “In implementing this program, nursing home staff will remove the barriers that bring about unwanted care and needless suffering, replacing them with more humane ways to honor an individual’s end-of-life care wishes.”
For more information, contact June Simmons at Partners in Care Foundation, (818) 837-3775, ext. 101 or email: jsimmons@picf.org
About Hospice Legacy
With its origins as Hospice of Pasadena, founded in 1978 as one of the first hospice programs in California to provide not-for-profit, charitable care and treatment to terminally ill children and adults and those close to them, Hospice Legacy is developing new approaches to quality of life and care at end-of-life though its funding of innovative projects. After Hospice of Pasadena became part of the certified and accredited hospice programs of Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier in July, 2006, Hospice Legacy and Board members Andrea Beal, Carol Peters, Stephen Wilburn, and June Simmons continue the tradition of service while forging new directions in advancing the agenda of humane end-of-life care through the support and development of pace-setting, sustainable projects in this area.
About Partners in Care Foundation www.picf.org
Based in San Fernando, California, Partners is a non-profit healthcare and social services organization dedicated to changing the shape of healthcare. In collaboration with its extensive network of community-based and healthcare organizations, funders, and supporters, Partners in Care initiates, develops, and tests innovative new models of care in aging well, access to care, end-of-life care, and health promotion and disease interventions for diverse communities and populations.
Nationally recognized for its evidence-based research initiatives which have been replicated in health and social service organizations across the continuum of care, Partners high-impact, cost-effective solutions to healthcare’s pressing issues have been in the forefront in delivering efficient and effective services while retaining quality of care in Access to Care, Aging Well, Prevention, End-of-Life Care, Families At-Risk, and Education and Advocacy. To learn more about Partners’ work, visit: www.picf.org or call (818) 837-3775 x 101.
Contact:
Partners in Care Foundation:
Betsy Myers, Media Relations, 310-275-4608; bmyers@picf.org
June Simmons, President/CEO, 818-837-3775 x 101; jsimmons@picf.org
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