Advance Care Planning and Advance Directives Completion of Elderly Patients at a Rural Health Clinic on a Regional Medical Campus

Abstract

Advance care planning is the shared decision-making process between physicians, patients, and families regarding the patient’s preferences for end of life care. These conversations increase compliance with patient wishes, decrease hospitalizations, increase deaths in patient’s preferred location, and decrease depression in surviving family members3. Even though there is proven benefit from advance care planning, these discussions are often overlooked. The purpose of this study is to evaluate rates of advance care planning and advance directive completion rate of 245 geriatric patients at our rural health clinic training site. We searched the electronic medical record to determine the number of patients who were asked about advance directives, stated they had a living will or medical power of attorney (MPOA), and had a living will or MPOA scanned into their chart. Out of the study population, 45% of patients stated they had some form of advanced directives. Of these patients, 22% and 25% had a living will and MPOA scanned into their chart, respectively. This study demonstrates the need for detailed discussion about advanced care planning with patients and additional follow-up to ensure documentation is readily available.