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In advance care planning, patients articulate their values, goals, and preferences about their future health care should they lose capacity to make decisions. This process involves identifying a surrogate decision maker and documenting the process in the patient's medical record and in an advance directive. In this randomized controlled trial that involved 309 older medical inpatients (age, ≥80), Australian investigators determined the effects of advance care planning versus usual care.
The intervention was based on the “Respecting Choices” program and was facilitated by trained nurses or allied health workers. Overall, 125 intervention patients (81%) and 1 control patient (1%) engaged in advance care planning. Of those 125 intervention pati…