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While psychiatric advance directives are not new in concept, patients tend not to take advantage of these tools.
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A study published in the March 9, 2009, issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, which revealed that patients with advanced cancer who reported talking to their physicians about their end-of-life care wishes had significantly lower health care costs in the last week of life.
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Feelings of abandonment on the part of patients and their caregivers are not uncommon as they transition from treatment to end-of-life care, according to a recent study completed by a team at the University of Washington.
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Boutique; concierge; retainer. These are all words used to describe physician practices that charge patients an annual fee for access. And while there don't appear to be firm numbers on such practices, some say they are meeting an important need in a broken health care system.
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[Editor's note: This is Part 2 of an article that appeared in the April 1, 2009, issue of Medical Ethics Advisor.]
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For the past decade, patient safety and quality care and all the assistant care policies and standards associated with quality initiatives have been directed at improving efficiencies of both cost and process within health care institutions.
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At the urging of the Obama administration, a policy to rescind the so-called "rules of conscience" for health care providers means that battle lines have been drawn once again over the question of when life begins among other moral and scientific questions in reproductive health.
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The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) reported that the nation's hospice community "claimed a significant victory" when President Obama signed The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
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While some focus on the specific policies and standards of achieving a safe, quality health care system in the United States within the existing system, Laurie Zoloth, PhD, professor of bioethics at Northwestern University in Chicago, suggests a broader approach is necessary to achieve "healthy health care systems."
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By executive order, President Obama on March 9 raised the spirits of many research scientists and those who hope for potential cures to disease by announcing his decision in favor of "removing barriers" to "responsible scientific research involving human stem cells."
