An American crisis.
How Americans are dying is the single greatest moral and financial medical crisis of our generation. The drama plays out on a daily basis in hospitals, hospice centers, and homes across the country, forcing families and their caregivers dangerously close to the breaking point. Our population is aging, our healthcare costs are skyrocketing, and our society is ill prepared for the coming “silver tsunami” of Baby Boomers. The far greater tragedy is that our medical system is mishandling, and even tormenting, the most vulnerable among us — those at the end of life. The shortcomings of modern end-of-life care are widely documented and denounced, most recently in a groundbreaking report by the Institute of Medicine; yet the average American — even the average healthcare provider — seems neither prepared for nor engaged in addressing the difficult issues surrounding death. The first step in averting disaster is to pull back the curtain — exposing the issues, breaking the taboos, and empowering Americans to change how we die.
FACTS ABOUT END OF LIFE CARE
Although 90% of Americans say they would prefer to die at home, only 24% over the age of 65 actually do. The overwhelming majority of us die in hospitals and institutions. In 2009, more patients received ICU care (29%) in the last month of life than accomplished their wish to die at home.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and JAMA
Doctors die differently than their patients, often forgoing care rather than seeking aggressive treatment. Sixty-five percent of U.S. physicians create an advance directive, while only 20% of laypeople do; 90% of doctors do not want CPR if in a chronic coma, while only 25% of the public makes that same choice.
Source: Johns Hopkins
Fewer people seem willing to accept the idea of a natural death or a death without intensive medical care. The percentage of individuals who support always taking extraordinary measures to save a life has steadily increased in recent years from 15% in 1990 to 31% in 2013. The proportion of those who support the idea of allowing a patient to die declined from 73% in 1990 to 66% in 2013.
Source: Pew Research Center
Popular media gives the public unrealistic expectations about the success of aggressive medical therapy. CPR is successful in 75% of cases portrayed on television; 65% of “patients” return home. That statistic is much grimmer in real life. Only 8%-17% of Americans survive CPR, and the vast majority of those survivors go on to live in a vegetative or otherwise dependent state.
Source: New England Journal of Medicine
America is aging rapidly; more patients and families soon will be confronted with how they want to die. About 1 in every 8 Americans is 65 years or older (representing 12.9% of the U.S. population). By 2030, the elderly population will have escalated to 72.1 million – more than double what it was in 2000.
Source: Department of Health and Human Services
End-of-life care, which accounts for 22% of all U.S. medical spending, disproportionately consumes healthcare dollars and adds to national debt. Medicare cannot reject payment based on cost. As a result, patients with terminal conditions often receive invasive or superfluous treatments and procedures that do not change their outcomes. Twenty-seven percent of Medicare’s annual $327 billion budget ($88 billion) goes to care for patients in their final year of life; approximately 16% (over $13 billion) is spent on futile care.
Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Although 90% of Americans say they would prefer to die at home, only 24% over the age of 65 actually do. The overwhelming majority of us die in hospitals and institutions. In 2009, more patients received ICU care (29%) in the last month of life than accomplished their wish to die at home.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and JAMA
Doctors die differently than their patients, often forgoing care rather than seeking aggressive treatment. Sixty-five percent of U.S. physicians create an advance directive, while only 20% of laypeople do; 90% of doctors do not want CPR if in a chronic coma, while only 25% of the public makes that same choice.
Source: Johns Hopkins
Fewer people seem willing to accept the idea of a natural death or a death without intensive medical care. The percentage of individuals who support always taking extraordinary measures to save a life has steadily increased in recent years from 15% in 1990 to 31% in 2013. The proportion of those who support the idea of allowing a patient to die declined from 73% in 1990 to 66% in 2013.
Source: Pew Research Center
Popular media gives the public unrealistic expectations about the success of aggressive medical therapy. CPR is successful in 75% of cases portrayed on television; 65% of “patients” return home. That statistic is much grimmer in real life. Only 8%-17% of Americans survive CPR, and the vast majority of those survivors go on to live in a vegetative or otherwise dependent state.
Source: New England Journal of Medicine
America is aging rapidly; more patients and families soon will be confronted with how they want to die. About 1 in every 8 Americans is 65 years or older (representing 12.9% of the U.S. population). By 2030, the elderly population will have escalated to 72.1 million – more than double what it was in 2000.
Source: Department of Health and Human Services
End-of-life care, which accounts for 22% of all U.S. medical spending, disproportionately consumes healthcare dollars and adds to national debt. Medicare cannot reject payment based on cost. As a result, patients with terminal conditions often receive invasive or superfluous treatments and procedures that do not change their outcomes. Twenty-seven percent of Medicare’s annual $327 billion budget ($88 billion) goes to care for patients in their final year of life; approximately 16% (over $13 billion) is spent on futile care.
Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid