Posts Tagged ‘NEJM’
Frank talk about palliative care at life’s end – or “death panels” if you’re an idiot teabagger!
Legislators have begun to recognize the medical, humanitarian and economic value of helping terminally ill patients and their families navigate treatment options as they approach the end of life.
Last week, over the objections of New York State’s medical society, Gov. David A. Paterson signed into law a bill — the New York Palliative Care Information Act — requiring physicians who treat patients with a terminal illness or condition to offer them or their representatives information about prognosis and options for end-of-life care, including aggressive pain management and hospice care as well as the possibilities for further life-sustaining treatment.
The good doctors were worried about thoughtful options getting in the way of the profits normally raked-in during the last couple months of anyone’s life in the United States.
A similar provision in the original federal health care overhaul proposal, which would have reimbursed doctors for the time it takes to have such conversations, was withdrawn when it was erroneously [deliberately] labeled by conservatives as a “death panel” option.
Last week, a study in The New England Journal of Medicine reported that among 151 patients with newly diagnosed metastatic lung cancer, those who received palliative care, which is care focused on symptoms, along with standard cancer therapy had a better quality of life, experienced less depression, were less likely to receive aggressive end-of-life care and lived nearly three months longer than those who received cancer treatment alone…
While some patients, especially those who are young or are the parents of young children, choose to pursue aggressive treatment for their diseases until their dying days, studies have shown that most terminally ill patients opt for comfort care after receiving honest information about their survival prospects and the benefits and risks of further disease-directed therapy.
RTFA. Lots of sensible information and discussion of an ordinary state government aiding the quest for terminal patients to get such information. Something which wouldn’t stand a chance in most states, especially those with an excess of influence given over to bible-thumping nutballs.
I was fortunate enough to contribute a small amount of effort to the introduction of hospices to the United States. Providing real care and kindness to the terminally-ill not being something deemed especially important by the American healthcare community – and most religions.
Something I’m proud to put on my life resume.
