AARP Report on Advanced Illness Care
AARP’s Public Policy Institute has released the report, Improving Advanced Illness Care: The Evolution of State POLST Programs, written by Charlie Sabatino and Naomi Karp. You can read the entire report here.
POLST is a key policy and practice vehicle to encourage advance care planning and ensure that patients’ preferences are honored across settings for people with advanced illness. A quarter of the states have POLST, and most others are working on POLST implementation. POLST development usually involves statewide collaboration among a diverse array of stakeholders, including the medical community, hospitals, nursing homes, state health and EMS departments, disability and aging advocacy groups, and the bar.
This report describes the elements of what has helped or hindered efforts, so that new initiatives don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Also it includes a statutory/regulatory chart and other materials synthesizing the detailed research.