…physicians or hospital representatives, the main defenders of the current “futile care statute” are two allegedly “pro-life” organizations.: “Such a policy is not in the best interest of patients because it only prolongs patient suffering and artificially delays death with no real benefit,” said Jennifer Allmon with the Texas Catholic Conference. “A natural death with dignity is part of our teaching. Aggressive medical treatment interferes with Go…
…ife-sustaining treatment to people with disabilities who want and need it. Futile care laws and policies allow doctors to overrule the autonomous health care decision of an individual or their authorized surrogate in favor of treatment. The judgment that a health care treatment is futile may sound like it could be based on an objective scientific medical assessment, but if it were, it would probably fail to meet “medical necessity” criteria and th…
…Directives Another way that advance directives are undermined results from futile care policies, which can be state statutes or medical provider policies, allowing the doctor to overrule the patient or family decision, or an advance directive, and deny life-sustaining treatment based on whatever medical predictions and quality of life judgments that they may feel are consistent with community standards. Types of Futility Statues There are 3 types…
…olders and other types of owners by only spending as much on actual health care as the health care providers can get away with. This simple maxim was affirmed in a recent letter to the editor written by the former head of the national nursing home lobby (deceptively named the American Health Care Association), Paul Willging, in response to a September 23rd New York Times article, “At Many Homes, More Profit and Less Nursing.” In his letter, Willgi…
…dime, however, there are good reasons to think about changing end-of-life care practices. While end-of-life care has improved considerably over the last 30 years, many Americans still die in hospitals when they would rather die at home. Nearly 20 percent of deaths occur in an intensive care unit or immediately after discharge, and too many patients experience symptoms like pain that are controllable with appropriate palliative care. Emanuel goes…
