Surgically inserted feeding tubes harm patients with dementia, research shows.

Trends changing in use of the Physician Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment form.

An electronic version of the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment form, or POLST, will ensure that end-of-life care wishes for OHSU patients can be honored.

Oregonians with serious illness or frailty are more likely to have their end-of-life care wishes honored, less likely to be hospitalized, and more likely to use home hospice services than the rest of the country.

It’s the conversation many avoid for too long: What kind of medical treatment do you want if you are frail or seriously ill?

​Not all states allow nurse practitioners to make a patient’s treatment wishes part of their medical record, yet a six-year study concludes that they can improve seriously ill patients’ access to advance-care planning. Nurse practitioners often serve as the primary care provider or a member of the team caring for patients in the last months of their lives when they are most likely to seek end-of-life treatment counseling.

Oregon Health & Science University, in partnership with Silicon Valley startup Vynca, Oregon POLST and the Oregon POLST Registry, today announced the launch of ePOLST, a fully integrated electronic version of the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, commonly known as POLST, which will assist health care systems in more accurately recording and accessing the wishes of patients who are nearing the end of life.