Family Medicine Commons^™

Enhancing The Rates Of Advance Directive Documentation To Improve The Quality Of Patient Care, Sydney Sheppard, Katie Salyers, Carolyn Curtis, Adam Franks Franks, Courtney Wellman

Marshall Journal of Medicine

Introduction

Advance Directives (AD) allow patients to maintain autonomy during incapacitation. Patients and their caregivers benefit from these documents in times of crisis. Overcoming barriers to AD completion and documentation can improve patient care quality.

Methods

A retrospective chart review was performed initially, after consolidation of the electronic health record (EHR) and after alteration of the EHR, to evaluate the availability of a patient’s medical power of attorney (MPOA), living will (LW), and code status.

Results

Baseline documentation of MPOA (7.33%), LW (6.00%), and code status (5.33%) within the outpatient EHR was low. After 2 cycles, this improved to 13.10%, …

Advance Care Planning: An Evidence-Based Practice Project, Gabrielle Alanna Harvey

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Advance care planning (ACP) is a topic that can be difficult for patients and providers to discuss due to lack of time, knowledge, communication skills, and discomfort surrounding the subject (Barkley et al., 2019; Hafid et al., 2021; Halpert et al., 2022; Marin, 2022). Delayed or absent ACP discussions may lead to nonbeneficial care, increased healthcare costs, end of life suffering and increased post-death family distress (Halpert et al., 2022; O’Hanlon et al., 2018). The purpose of this evidence-based practice (EBP) project was to increase the discussions and documentation regarding ACP in a family practice setting. The PICOT question guiding …