Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Choosing Where to Live Based Upon End-of-Life Preferences

A health executive new to hospice asked the other day, in advance of assuming an executive role of a palliative care organization in a resort community, what role should physicians play in the end-of-life care in the community? I replied a small one (relative to the role that specialists were presently serving). But a larger one for palliative medicine physicians. He asked why that wasn't the case at present. Because patients don't choose their regions they live in based on the amount of care they wish to receive in their last six months of life, I replied.
I wonder, will there be a day when those choices are made?

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