Medical orders for life-sustaining treatment: is it time yet?

Objective: As the aging population faces complex end-of-life issues, we studied the intervals between long-term care admission and advance directive completion, and between completion and death. We also sought to determine the interdisciplinary team's compliance with documented wishes.

Method: A cross-sectional study of 182 long-term care residents in two facilities with and without completed medical orders for life-sustaining treatment (MOLST) in the New York Metropolitan area was conducted.