The title says it all. Do any of you see this problem? Story from The Wall Street Journal: http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/01/...fe-care-plans/

There’s been quite a to-do about whether an end-of-life planning discussion should be recommended for inclusion in the annual Medicare wellness visit. But how many people actually plan for the medical decisions that will be made as they near death?

A report from the CDC looks specifically at those in long-term care — including home health care patients, those in nursing homes and those who left hospice for whatever reason (including death) — to see how many had at least one advance directive on record.

ADs include living wills, which explain end-of-life care preferences, and a health-care durable power of attorney/health-care proxy, which let you name someone to make medical decisions if you can’t. Autopsy requests, specific feeding instructions and organ donations, among other ADs, were also part of the survey.


Some of the report’s findings:
  • There are variations in the use of ADs: 28% of home health care patients, 65% of nursing home residents and 88% of discharged hospice patients had at least one on file.
  • Older folks — those 85 and up — were more likely to have ADs than people under age 65 in every setting. But the differential was smaller in hospice patients.
  • Black patients were less likely to have an AD than white ones, but again, the differential was smaller for hospice patients.
  • Among the various types of ADs, do-not-resuscitate orders (DNRs) were most popular among nursing-home and hospice patients, while living wills were more common among home health care patients.