Concordance of Advance Care Plans With Inpatient Directives in the Electronic Medical Record for Older Patients Admitted From the Emergency Department

Abstract

Context: Measuring What Matters identified quality indicators to examine the percentage of patients with documentation of a surrogate decision maker and preferences for life-sustaining treatments.

Objectives: To determine the rate of advance care planning in older adults presenting to the emergency department (ED) and translation into medical directives in the electronic medical record (EMR).

Methods: A convenience sample of adults 65 years or older was recruited from a large urban ED beginning in January 2012. We administered a baseline interview and survey in English or Spanish, including questions about whether patients had a documented health care proxy or living will. For patients admitted to the hospital who had a health care proxy or living will, chart abstraction was performed to determine whether their advance care preferences were documented in the EMR.

Results: From February 2012 to May 2013, 53.8% (367 of 682) of older adults who completed the survey in the ED reported having a health care proxy, and 40.2% (274 of 682) had a living will. Of those admitted to the hospital, only 4% (4 of 94) of patients who said they had a living will had medical directives documented in the EMR. Similarly, only 4% (5 of 115) of patients who had a health care proxy had the person's name or contact information documented in their medical record.

Conclusion: About half of the patients 65 years or older arriving in the ED have done significant advance care planning, but most plans are not recorded in the EMR.

Keywords: Quality improvement; advance care planning; emergency medicine.