Journal of palliative medicine
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Background: In 2014, the province of Alberta launched a campaign to promote public awareness of advance care planning (ACP) and its associated two-part documentation-a Goals of care designation (GCD, a medical order written by a health care practitioner detailing wishes for care) and a personal directive (PD, a document naming a surrogate decision maker). Notably, unlike the GCD, the PD can be self-initiated independent of a health practitioner. Objective: Two years after the campaign, we aimed to assess knowledge and recall of participation in ACP among cirrhosis patients. Design/Setting: Consecutive adult cirrhosis patients attending one of two specialty cirrhosis clinics in Edmonton, Alberta, were surveyed. Results: Ninety-seven patients were included. Mean model for end-stage liver disease was 12. ⋯ Seventy-eight percent of patients believed a GCD was important to them and 85% preferred to complete it in an outpatient clinic setting. Only a minority of patients who had taken the initiative to complete a PD in the community also had a GCD. Conclusions: Despite efforts to raise awareness of and educate Albertans about ACP, <20% of cirrhosis patients have a completed GCD. Additional strategic prioritization is required in both patients and providers to ensure that health practitioner-facilitated ACP is carried out as standard-of-care in all patients with cirrhosis.
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Background: Demographic and contextual factors are associated with quality of life (QoL) in older adults and prediagnosis QoL among older adults has important implications for supportive care in older cancer patients. Objective: To examine whether lower educational attainment is associated with poorer QoL among community dwelling older adults just before their diagnosis of lung cancer in a nationally representative sample. Design: This study used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare Health Outcomes Survey (MHOS) dataset, which provides cancer registry data linked with survey data for Medicare Advantage enrollees. ⋯ Results: Higher education was positively associated with prediagnosis mental and physical QoL. Other factors associated with lower QoL were Medicaid status and number of comorbidities. Conclusions: Particular attention should focus on identifying and addressing QoL needs among vulnerable older adults to bolster QoL to mitigate its potential impact on prognosis following a lung cancer diagnosis.
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The field of palliative care (PC) has spent the past decade demonstrating that it improves outcomes for patients, clinicians, and health systems. Forward-thinking organizations preparing for a reimbursement system rooted in value have built robust inpatient PC programs and are rapidly moving toward the outpatient and community settings as well. As PC programs get larger and are increasingly tasked with leading a wide variety of diverse initiatives, population health principles can help to focus programs on high-value activities. This article, written by population health researchers and PC clinicians, seeks to provide PC teams nationally with a variety of population health strategies and tools to guide PC delivery throughout the health system and beyond.