Grant provided by Your CarePlan, LLC.
Brief Description:
Improving communication around advance care planning (ACP) for patients with advanced illness nearing the end of life is a high priority in our current medical environment. We investigated whether use of a video-guided tool may help facilitate completion of a POLST (Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment) form for patients with advanced illness.
Our research found that patients and their decision makers who used the tool were far more likely to complete all sections of the POLST form, more likely to elect a less aggressive level of care, limited or symptom treatment vs. full treatment, more likely to elect Do Not Hospitalize (DNH), and more likely to refuse tube feeding compared to the control arm. The work suggests that a video-guided POLST completion tool may augment ACP and better align personal goals of care with available therapies.
Click here for a summary of the research and key findings. To learn more about Your CarePlan, click here.
GOCCNJ Your CarePlan™
Your CarePlan is a video-guided program that helps healthcare providers (HCPs) complete POLST forms with eligible patients in long-term care facilities, hospitals, and community practices. Guided scripts, gentle prompts and short, straight-forward informational videos simplify the conversation about goals of care and choices for treatment and facilitate POLST documentation. As each section is completed, the answers automatically populate a POLST form which can then be printed for the patient and authorized HCP to sign. Utilization of Your CarePlan improves patient health literacy and ensures informed consent.
Real world evidence (RWE) obtained from 326 provider and patient POLST conversations using Your CarePlan resulted in:
- 36% of patients electing DO NOT HOSPITALIZE (DNH)1
- 98% of patients electing DO NOT RESUSCITATE (DNR)1
- 98% of patients electing DO NOT INTUBATE (DNI)1
A recent study found that when HCPs used Your CarePlan, they achieved high rates of:
- Completion2
- Less Aggressive Care2
- Nutritional Preferences2
For more information, visit Your CarePlan.
1. Data on File. GOCCNJ; RWE Sept. 17, 2018 – March 11, 2020.
2. Data on File. GOCCNJ; Pilot Study, Jan. 2017 – Dec. 2017.