Prevalence of advance directives and guardianship in nursing home patients

The Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) now requires federally funded nursing homes to inform newly admitted patients of their right to determine their future medical care. Many nursing home patients may not be able to understand these rights, given the high prevalence of mental disorders, particularly dementia, in this population, and well need family members for assistance. Prior to the onset of the PSDA we surveyed the families of all residents of a large, proprietary nursing home to determine whether family members understood the concept of advance directives and guardianship. We also ascertained the rate of use of these instruments in the population studied. We found that the majority of family member respondents understood these concepts, but that substantial proportions of both competent and incompetent patients lacked surrogate decision-making authority, either in the form of a court-appointed guardian or a written advance-directive instrument. Informing newly admitted patients and their families about advance directives is warranted because many lack these plans. However, the high proportion of incompetent patients among nursing home patients indicates the need to encourage currently competent patients to formulate advance directives prior to nursing home placement.