Withdrawing and withholding treatment: policies in long-term care facilities

The Task Force on Life and the Law conducted a survey of nursing homes in New York State in 1986 and 1988. The survey examined the existence of policies on decisions about life-sustaining treatment, the process to determine which residents have decision-making capacity, the prevalence of ethics committees or other vehicles to resolve disputes, and policies on advance directives such as living wills and durable powers of attorney. Comparison of responses in 1986 and 1988 shows an increase in the number of facilities that have established explicit policies and institutional vehicles to address the dilemmas associated with decisions to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatment.