Lessons Learned From a Pilot Project on Telemedicine Advance Care Planning in an Urban Geriatric Primary Care Office

There is a dearth of literature regarding the documentation of advance care planning (ACP) in the geriatric population, despite the controversial, yet well-studied need for ACP. The purpose of this pilot study was to provide an update to a prior study from our institution that outlined the need for increased documentation of advance care planning (ACP) in an urban geriatric population.

Our study involved using telemedicine to conduct dedicated ACP visits and an electronic medical record (EMR) note-template specifically designed for these visits in an attempt to increase the amount of documented ACP in the EMR in this population.

The study did not yield significant results due to the inability to schedule enough patients for these dedicated visits.

While our study was ultimately unsuccessful, 3 crucial lessons were identified that will inform and fuel future interventions by the authors to further the study of documentation of ACP.