Nursing Home participation in end-of-life programs: United States, 2004

The purpose of this report is to define the extent to which US nursing homes (NH) participate in end-of-life programs, using a nationally representative, cross-sectional sample of US NH. Data on EoL programs including Five Wishes, Last Acts, and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) were collected. In 2004, 17.2% of NH reported participating in 1 or more of these programs, with the largest proportion participating in POLST (13.3%) and smaller proportions in Five Wishes (5.6%) and Last Acts (4.2%). Nursing homes were more likely to participate in EoL programs if they also offered specialty programs and staff training for hospice, end-of-life, pain management, and dementia services. In 2004, fewer than 1 in 5 US NH participated in an EoL program. However, facilities that had EoL programs were more likely to have programs and staff training for services related to EoL care, a finding that suggests a clustering of these programs, services, and training. Provision of appropriate staff training may be a key to expanding EoL program participation in skilled nursing.