GeriPal: I recently attended the California Coalition for Compassionate Care’s (CCCC), Physicians’ Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) meeting last week. The room was filled with amazing, caring individuals from around California who are passionate and dedicated to improving advance care planning. The CCCC along with the California Health Care Foundation and California community leaders have made great strides in getting the word out about advance care planning and disseminating POLST forms.
A major theme about advance care planning that kept emerging during our meeting was the large disconnect between what the healthcare system needs (documented forms with check boxes to help direct medical care) and what patients and families need (information about the outcomes of treatment, prognostic information, and support making medical decisions).