Why we need a new approach to end of life care

Looking at how incredibly expensive the last few months of life are for anyone in this country, I think most would be quite shocked. In 2014, there were approximately 2.6 million deaths in the U.S. According to a Keiser Permanente study, 2.1 million of those deaths were Medicare related. Medicare’s annual budget is right around $600 billion, and it has been revealed that one-third of that total is spent in relation to the last six months of life. That is a staggering amount of money. What does this say about our approach to health care and quality of life in general? Fact: Everybody dies. No matter what, no matter when, no matter who you are, how rich or poor, famous or unknown, everyone will meet their end at some point. Death is thus a front-and-center reality with which we must more effectively contend. Questions concerning the ethics and even the legality of death often arise within the medical field. Just about everything we do in medicine has legal implications, with a looming cloud of concern for malpractice. You simply need to look at the out-of-control cost of the insurance policies that practices and hospitals must have in place to realize this. When death is the outcome, everybody raises questions. The committees review the cases, families sometimes question the outcome itself, and some relatives may even seek potential financial gain from it. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Hospital-Based Medicine Palliative Care Source Type: blogs