JAGS Paper: Physicians' Views on Advance Care Planning and End‐of‐Life Care Conversations
The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) released a paper, "Physicians' Views on Advance Care Planning and End‐of‐Life Care Conversations," authored by Terry Fulmer, Marcus Escobedo, Amy Berman and Mary Jane Koren, of The John A. Hartford Foundation, and Sandra Hernández, of the California Health Care Foundation, and Angela Hult, formerly of Cambia Health Foundation.
The paper evaluated physicians' views on advance care planning (ACP), goals of care, and end‐of‐life conversations. A random sample telephone survey was used to measure attitudes and perceptions of barriers and facilitators to advance care planning.
99% of physician participants agreed that it is important to have end‐of‐life conversations, yet only 29% reported that they have formal training for such conversations.
Patient values and preferences were the strongest motivating factors in having advance care planning conversations, with 92% of participants rating it extremely important. 95% of participants reported that they supported a new Medicare fee‐for‐service benefit reimbursing advance care planning. The biggest barrier mentioned was time availability.
"Addressing clinician barriers to ACP to meet the needs of their older patients and families requires the integration of existing, proven tools into a 3-pronged strategy that includes education and training, formal systems, and reimbursement for these critical conversations."
To read the abstract, click here.
To go to JAGS June 2018, volume 66, issue 6, click here.
The original survey was commissioned by The John A. Hartford Foundation, California Health Care Foundation and Cambia Health Foundation.