- Most Americans die due to chronic illnesses.
- Modern medicine has increased longevity. As a result, most Americans will live for many years with a chronic illness before they die.
- Hospitals are the most common site of death followed by nursing home units.
- Deaths in nursing home units are expected to double in the next two decades.
- Many dying patients receive aggressive and often futile therapeutic interventions in the last weeks of life.
- Physicians often misunderstood patient preferences, especially when patients did not want high-technology, life-extending care.
- Almost 1 in 2 patients who die in hospitals and 1 in 4 patients who die in nursing homes die in significant pain.
- Most dying patients experience many distressing symptoms that can be alleviated with skilled palliative care.
- Family members express dissatisfaction with end-of-life care received by their loved ones.
- Appropriate provision of palliative care (early in the illness trajectory) and hospice care (in the last 6 months of life) can significantly improve care of patients with serious illnesses.
PBS: Letter Project
What-matters-most-letter
