Advance care planning is a process, which includes choosing a surrogate or alternate decision-maker and communicating values or wishes for medical care. This helps prepare a person for in-the-moment medical decision-making, as well as guiding their surrogate or alternate decision-maker should the person lose capacity for decision-making. Advance care planning is appropriate for healthy adults and patients with their family and healthcare providers, early, recurrently, and as circumstances change. Evidence shows that advance care planning conversations improve patient and family satisfaction with care and concordance between patients’ and families’ wishes, increase the completion of advance care planning documents, reduce the likelihood of patients receiving hospital care and the number of days spent in hospital, and increase the likelihood of receiving hospice care.
Sources:
Detering KM, et al. The impact of advance care planning on end of life care in elderly patients: randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 2010 Mar 23;340:c1345. PMID: 20332506.
Houben CH, et al. Efficacy of advance care planning: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2014 Jul;15(7):477-89. PMID: 24598477.
Newton J, et al. Evaluation of the introduction of an advanced care plan into multiple palliative care settings. Int J Palliat Nurs. 2009 Nov;15(11):554-61. PMID: 20081730.
Poppe M, et al. Qualitative evaluation of advanced care planning in early dementia (ACP-ED). PLoS One. 2013;8(4):e60412. PMID: 23630571.