Patient Advocate, Writer, and Speaker
In the U.S, there are 300,000 hip fractures a year in people 65 and older, and that number is going up.
Millions of older people enter the hospital each year for elective treatment of serious medical issues such as cancer, heart disease, and quality of life surgeries like joint replacement. Like an Antarctic expedition, a successful hospitalization is almost entirely determined by prior discharge planning, and yet so few people walk in prepared to leave.
Last month, I wrote about my ambivalence about the EoLOA in a personal essay about a client who desired, but did not carry out, a physician-assisted death in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine.
Patients and health-care providers are facing changes if they hope to build a system of patient-centered care.
