A May 5th article in the New York Times shared with us the concept of "slow medicine". It's essentially when a patient at home or a nursing home chooses palliative care, whether or not they qualify for hospice care. Slow medicine shares the hospice goal of comfort rather than cure. It encourages physicians to consider the risks and effectiveness of treatments and to "put the brakes on" treatments that are likely to have real benefit to the patient. It also educated patients and families on how to make wise decisions about the care the choose to receive.

Decisions about intensity of care are generally easy to make when a patient is in a nursing home. Most nursing homes have forms that are filled out on admission, often called preferred intensity of care (PIC) forms, that clarify what a patients wishes are regarding hospitalization, nutrition, antibiotics, etc. It can be a little more difficult when a patient lives at home. If something goes wrong, most people would call 911 without knowing whether that's what the patient would want and without knowing that there other options.

Advanced directives, Five Wishes, and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders are three documents that can express a patients wishes in advance.

Read the full New York Times article

Hands Off! Do Not Resuscitate

Planning Ahead: Advanced Directives

What is Five Wishes?

.......................................

_{Photo © Stockbyte/Getty Images}