Use of the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment program in Oregon nursing facilities: beyond resuscitation status.

Objectives: Program was designed to communicate resident/surrogate treatment preferences in the form of medical orders. To assess statewide nursing facility use of the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) and to identify the patterns of orders documented on residents' POLST forms.

Design: Telephone survey; on-site POLST form review.