End Notes
1. “After 80, only 3.3 percent survived to hospital discharge”: http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/how-successful-is-cpr-in-older-patients/.
2. Tom and Dr. Jennifer Brokaw in conversation at TEDx Stanford, May 19, 2012.
3. Tom Brokaw, A Lucky Life Interrupted, Random House, 2015.
5. “Only 17 percent of people reported having had a discussion about end-of-life care with their doctor,” “Medicare’s Advance Care Planning Payment Is a Game-Change,” The John A. Hartford Foundation, March 25, 2016, pages 2–5.
6. “Most people—particularly younger, poorer, minority, and less-educated individuals, do not have these conversations.” “Dying in America,” Institute of Medicine, September 17, 2014: iom.nationalacademies.org, page 73.
7. Pam Belluck, “Medicare Plans to Pay Doctors for Counseling on End of Life,” New York Times, July 8, 2015.
8. “Despite the importance of good clinician-patient communication, many impediments to such communication exist...including a lack of training, insufficient time, competing needs, and personal discomfort in discussing terminal prognoses and death.” “Dying in America,” Institute of Medicine, September 17, 2014: iom.nationalacademies.org, page 149.
9. Dying to Talk, hosted by Dr. Dawn Gross on KALW 91.7 in San Francisco.
Resources for Advance Care Planning
The Conversation Project Starter Kit—designed for patients and lay people on how to talk to your loved ones about what you or they want for end-of-life care.
California State University’s Institute for Palliative Care—intended for medical professionals (physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains) on facilitating an advance care planning conversation with patients.
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization—designed for patients and lay people on how to talk with loved ones and health care providers about their end-of-life wishes.
Stanford Medicine’s Letter Project—designed by Dr. V.J. Periyakoil for patients and lay people on writing a basic letter to their doctors and loved ones about what matters most in the final chapters of their lives.
The Four Things That Matter Most—a book written by palliative care expert Dr. Ira Byock on four simple phrases to use that will help start the conversation and achieve closure.