End-of-Life Care

The number of people suffering with dementia is increasing in the general population and the trend is projected to continue as people live longer, especially in countries with developed economies. The most common cause of dementia (among the many other causes) is Alzheimer’s dementia, which is considered a terminal illness. The disease could eventually lead to death, or death could occur as a consequence of co-morbid physical complications. The problem of end of life (EOL) care for patients suff

Adults with congenital heart disease represent a growing patient population. Notwithstanding dramatic improvements in survival and life expectancy over recent decades, many of these patients remain at risk of premature death from progressive heart disease and would benefit from the principles of palliative and end-of-life care. Data on end-of-life care in this patient group are, however, lacking. We report a retrospective study of 48 patients with congenital heart disease who died while admitted to ou

Background: End-of-life care is deemed to be poor in the United States – particularly in large teaching hospitals. Via a brief survey, we examined satisfaction with end-of-life care for those patients who died in our academic medical center from provider and family perspectives. Methods: To assess the correlation between overall satisfaction between providers (attending, housestaff, and nurses) as well as family members for decedents who died in our hospital, we cond