Aims And Objectives: To examine the use of advanced directives (ADs) in patients actively using health services in the USA.
Background: Since 1991, USA law (PSDA 1991) has required hospitals, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and home health services to inquire, at admission, if patients have in place ADs, to provide patients with a written summary of their rights in regard to health-related decision-making and to provide education to staff and the community about ADs.
Design: Via chart review and observation, the AD status of patients residing in three SNFs during a six-week period was ascertained (n = 272). Those with ADs were further evaluated to examine the timing of the directive in regards to their health status.
Methods: Patients residing at SNFs were selected for study because SNF patients are admitted from the hospital; therefore, there are at least two opportunities - at hospital admission and at SNF admission - to inquire and educate about advance directives.
Results: Residents ranged in age from 35 to 100 years and included patients admitted for short-term rehabilitaion after hospitalisation, as well as residents who were initially admitted after a hospitalisation but required long-term care. A full 90·44% (n = 246) entered skilled care without an AD, and 69·11% (n = 188) remained without an AD. The most likely reason for the development of an AD was lengthy decline in health status associated with multiple hospitalisations.
Conclusions: Current law appears ineffective. A more appropriate approach is to encourage open dialogue about treatment options and quality of life.
Relevance To Clinical Practice: Given the rapidity with which populations are ageing in countries worldwide, ADs would appear to be a phenomenon that should be embraced. However, experience in the USA has called into question their usefulness.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04190.x | DOI Listing |
Women Birth
January 2025
School of Nursing and Midwifery & Centre for Quality and Safety Research, Institute for Health Transformation, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia; Western Health, St Albans, Victoria, Australia.
Background: Since 2019, maternity care in Australia has been guided by the national maternity policy, Woman-centred care: Strategic directions for Australian maternity services (the Strategy). The Strategy has four core values (safety, respect, choice and access), which underpin 12 principles of woman-centred care.
Aim: To describe women's experiences of receiving maternity care in Australia and explore how their care aligned with the values and principles of the Strategy.
J Surg Res
January 2025
Department of Surgery, Boston Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts; Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.
Introduction: Access to rehabilitation services after a traumatic injury improves functional outcomes. No study has examined the association between injury intent, violent versus nonviolent, and receipt of rehabilitation services after injury.
Materials And Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of injured adult patients admitted to our level I trauma center from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2021.
Clin Orthop Relat Res
January 2025
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Brooke Army Medical Center, JBSA Fort Sam Houston, TX, USA.
Background: A number of efforts have been made to tailor behavioral healthcare treatments to the variable needs of patients with low back pain (LBP). The most common approach involves the STarT Back Screening Tool (SBST) to triage the need for psychologically informed care, which explores concerns about pain and addresses unhelpful beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Such beliefs that pain always signifies injury or tissue damage and that exercise should be avoided have been implied as psychosocial mediators of chronic pain and can impede recovery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFN Engl J Med
January 2025
From Bielefeld University, Medical School and University Medical Center Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Campus Hospital Lippe, Detmold, Germany (J.H.); the Department of Radiation Oncology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria (T.B.); the Clinical Trials Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany (C.S.); the Institute of Surgical Pathology, University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany (P.B.); the Department of Surgery, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein-Campus Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany (B.K., T.K.); Comprehensive Cancer Center Augsburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany (R.C.); the Department of General and Visceral Surgery, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany (S.U.); the Department of General, Visceral, and Thoracic Surgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany (J.R.I.); the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute and San Raffaele Vita-Salute University, Milan (I.G.); the Department of General, Visceral, Thoracic, and Endocrine Surgery, Johannes Wesling University Hospital Minden, Ruhr University Bochum, Minden, Germany (B.G.); the Department of General, Visceral, and Pediatric Surgery, University Medical Center Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany (M.G.); the Department of General, Visceral, Thoracic, Transplantation, and Pediatric Surgery, University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein-Campus Kiel, Kiel, Germany (B.R.); the Department of General, Visceral, Transplantation, Vascular, and Pediatric Surgery, University Hospital, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany (J.F.L.); the Department of General, Visceral, Cancer, and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany (C.B.); the Department of Hematology and Oncology, Sana Klinikum Offenbach, Offenbach am Main, Germany (E.R.); the Department of Surgery, Klinikum Dortmund, Klinikum der Universität Witten-Herdecke, Dortmund, Germany (M.S.); the Department of Surgery, University Hospital Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany (F.B.); the Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany (G.F.); the Department of Hematology, Oncology, and Cancer Immunology, Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Berlin (P.T.-P.); the Department of General, Visceral, Cancer, and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany (U.P.N.); the Department of General, Visceral, and Transplantation Surgery, University Hospital Muenster, Muenster, Germany (A.P.); the Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Goethe University Frankfurt, University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany (D.I.); the Division of Gastroenterology, Rheumatology, and Infectology, Department of Medicine, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin (S.D.); the Department of Surgery, Robert Bosch Hospital, Stuttgart, Germany (T.S.); the Department of Surgery, University Medical Center Erlangen, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany (C.K.); the Department of Medicine II, Saarland University Medical Center, Saarland University, Homburg, Germany (S.Z.); the Department of General, Visceral, and Transplant Surgery, Ludwig Maximilian University Hospital, Munich, Germany (J.W.); the Department of Internal Medicine I, Klinikum Mutterhaus der Borromaerinnen, Trier, Germany (R.M.); the Departments of Hematology, Oncology, and Palliative Care, Klinikum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany (G.I.); the Department of General, Visceral, and Transplant Surgery, University Medical Center Mainz, Mainz, Germany (P.G.); and the Department of Medicine II, University Cancer Center Leipzig, Cancer Center Central Germany, University Medical Center Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany (F.L.).
Background: The best multimodal approach for resectable locally advanced esophageal adenocarcinoma is unclear. An important question is whether perioperative chemotherapy is preferable to preoperative chemoradiotherapy.
Methods: In this phase 3, multicenter, randomized trial, we assigned in a 1:1 ratio patients with resectable esophageal adenocarcinoma to receive perioperative chemotherapy with FLOT (fluorouracil, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, and docetaxel) plus surgery or preoperative chemoradiotherapy (radiotherapy at a dose of 41.
JMIR Hum Factors
January 2025
Department of Value Improvement, St. Antonius Hospital, Nieuwegein, Netherlands.
Background: Patients with cerebrovascular accident (CVA) should be involved in setting their rehabilitation goals. A personalized prediction of CVA outcomes would allow care professionals to better inform patients and informal caregivers. Several accurate prediction models have been created, but acceptance and proper implementation of the models are prerequisites for model adoption.
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