Advance Care Planning

When the Practitioner Becomes the Patient

Xenia Shih Bion

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

Stories That Caught Our Attention This Week: Kathy Brandt is a nationally recognized expert in palliative health care, but nothing has acquainted her more intimately with the subject than her decision to seek it for herself.

On the Art of Dying Well

February 21, 2019

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

A conversation with California author Katy Butler, whose new book spotlights the perverse financial incentives that promote overtreatment and overdiagnosis of patients while failing to reward relationships, thoughtfulness, and harm reduction.

As Boundaries Blur, ‘Palliative Care Everywhere’ Is the Goal

February 28, 2018

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care, Telehealth

Palliative care supporters see this movement as the cure for what ails American medicine.

Beyond Cancer: A New Palliative Care Approach Targets High-Risk Liver Patients

November 6, 2017

Steven Birenbaum

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

Patients receiving innovative palliative care services for advanced liver disease at LAC+USC Medical Center in Los Angeles wish everyone with that illness had access to the same innovative care.

POLST eRegistry Pilot Initiative

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

A pilot project to establish an electronic registry for POLST forms in California could enable quick access to this information by emergency responders and others.

Teaming Up to Transform Care in the Safety Net

February 26, 2016

Melissa Buckley

The CHCF Innovation Fund helps Landmark Health road-test a model of team care in California that upends the fee-for-service paradigm by delivering in-home services to patients with complex conditions.

Working to Make ICU Care ‘Just Right’

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

An ICU doc asks physicians and nurses whether they sometimes go too far using advanced medical technology to help people stay alive beyond the point when their quality of life has ebbed.

Perceptions of the Appropriateness of Care in California Adult Intensive Care Units

Matthew Anstey, John Adams, Elizabeth McGlynn

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

Researchers have found that patients often receive treatment in the ICU that neither matches their preferences nor is likely to benefit them.

Advance Care Planning: Consumer Resources

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

How to spur people to talk about their preferences for care when faced with a serious illness? Dr. Angelo Volandes discusses his powerful videos that help patients understand their options.

September 24, 2014

Webinar — How Organizations Can Help Patients Communicate About End-of-Life Care

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

September 24, 2014

Health care organizations are helping patients communicate what kind of care they want when facing a serious or fatal illness, and are supporting providers to deliver that care.

Design Challenge: Catalyzing Communication About End-of-Life Care

Serious Illness & End-of-Life Care

See how human-centered designers answered our challenge to encourage more people to complete advance directives and document their end-of-life wishes.