Health Care Reform's Proposed End-of-Life Provisions
End-of-life planning promotes patient autonomy by allowing individual patients to inform and direct care givers and healthcare proxies on their desired level of end-of-life care, where the patient prefers to pass away (whether at home or in a hospital setting), and the methods and levels of pain man...
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Main Authors: | , , |
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Format: | Book |
Published: |
University of North Florida,
2010-04-01T00:00:00Z.
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Online Access: | Connect to this object online. |
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Summary: | End-of-life planning promotes patient autonomy by allowing individual patients to inform and direct care givers and healthcare proxies on their desired level of end-of-life care, where the patient prefers to pass away (whether at home or in a hospital setting), and the methods and levels of pain management that the patient deems desirable. Given that, it is counter-intuitive that a significant majority of American's fail to execute, or fail to properly execute, advance directives. Theauthor'seffortsfocusonwhatcanbedonetoimprove,generally,end-of-lifecare. Tothatend,theauthorsconclude that improvements in end-of-life care must be achieved at three levels: the individual level, the healthcare provider level, andatthegovernmentlevel. Ontheindividuallevel,patientsmustassumegreateraccountabilityfortheirownend-of-life care. Thatentailsmakingone'swishesforend-of-lifecareknowntofamilymembersandhealthcareproviders. Onthe healthcare provider level, improved patient communication and improved delivery of palliative-oriented care are first order initiatives. Finally, the government can play a significant role in improving end-of-life care by collecting better healthcare utilization and cost data on end-of-life experiences, expanding benefits for palliative care services, and promoting the use of advance directives through legislative efforts that include patient education measures. |
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Item Description: | 2643-6248 |