AHRQ’s Health Care Innovations Exchange Focuses on End-of-Life Care Issues

The latest issue of AHRQ’s Health Care Innovations Exchange features three innovation profiles describing programs that aimed to increase rates of advance care planning. One featured profile describes a program that employed a nontechnical, nonthreatening approach to care-coordinator discussions about advance directives. The care coordinators, for example, introduced the topic by asking participants if they had chosen someone to speak for them about medical issues should they become unable to speak for themselves. The approach was targeted at low-income African Americans and black immigrants to encourage them to sign a living will and durable power of attorney for health care. It was later expanded to include members of all racial and ethnic groups. In a 6-month pilot test, the program increased the completion rate for advance directives among African Americans and black immigrants and reduced the gap in completion rates between these groups and whites. The AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange includes more than 50 innovation profiles and tools related to end-of-life care.

Innovations

Care Coordinators Engage in Culturally Sensitive Discussions About Advance Directives With Seniors, Increasing Completion Rates and Reducing Disparities Between African Americans and Whites 12/18/2013

Care coordinators in a large integrated system engage in culturally tailored discussions with low-income seniors about completing advance directives, leading to higher completion rates and a narrowing of the gap in completion rates between African Americans/black immigrants and whites.

Policy Legislatively Mandated, Permanent Council Serves as Effective Catalyst for Sustained Progress on End-of-Life Policy Issues in Maryland 12/18/2013

A legislatively authorized, permanent council serves as an effective catalyst for concrete, sustained progress on high-priority policy issues related to end-of-life care in Maryland.

Community-Wide Education, Trained Facilitators, and Improved Processes Lead to More Advance Care Planning, Consistency Between Plans and End-of-Life Decisions, and Low Care Costs 12/9/2013

Standardized, community-wide education, trained facilitators, and improved management processes lead to more advance care planning by patients, high levels of consistency between such plans and actual end-of-life decisions, and low care costs in the last 2 years of life.

Multidisciplinary Team Brings Palliative Care to Rural Patients, Leading to Improved Symptom Management and High Levels of Satisfaction 12/4/2013

A palliative care program brings holistic physical, spiritual, and psychosocial support and care to patients in rural areas in their setting of choice, leading to improved symptom management and high levels of patient and provider satisfaction.

Pediatric Palliative Care Program Improves Communication, Reduces Patient Suffering, and Helps Parents Feel More Prepared for Child's End-of-Life Experience 11/20/2013

The Pediatric Advanced Care Team is a pediatric palliative care consult service that provides intensive symptom management as well as honest, complete, and sensitive communication with patients and families.

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QualityTools

Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Sample Forms 12/18/2013

The Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Paradigm program, designed to improve the quality of care people receive at the end of life, promotes the use of a POLST form to document medical orders such as pain management, resuscitation orders, feeding procedures, and other medical interventions.

Caring Connections: Brochures 12/18/2013

Caring Connections provides brochures to help people make informed decisions about end-of-life care and services.

Advance Care Planning: Preferences for Care at the End of Life 10/9/2013

This report, which presents findings from research funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, can help health care professionals offer end-of-life care based on preferences held by the majority of patients under similar circumstances.

Advanced Lung Cancer: Issues to Consider—Patient Education Guide 3/13/2013

This patient education guide provides information for people diagnosed with advanced stage lung cancer.

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis and You: Patient Education Guide 3/13/2013

This patient education guide provides information for people diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).

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