title: Physician orders for life-sustaining treatment (POLST): lessons learned from analysis of the Oregon POLST Registry.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) has become a common means of documenting patient treatment preferences. In addition to orders either for Attempt Resuscitation or Do Not Attempt Resuscitation, for patients not in cardiopulmonary arrest, POLST provides three levels of treatment: Full Treatment, Limited Interventions, and Comfort Measures Only. Oregon has an electronic registry for POLST forms completed in the state. We used registry data to examine the different combinations of treatment orders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We analyzed data from forms signed and entered into the Oregon POLST Registry in 2012. The analysis included 31,294 POLST forms. The mean Registrant age was 76.7 years. 21,396 (68.4%) had Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNR) orders and 9900 (31.6%) had orders for "Attempt Resuscitation". The 6 order combinations were: Do Not Resuscitate (DNR)/Comfort Measures Only 10,769 (34.4%), DNR/Limited Interventions 9306 (29.7%), DNR/Full Treatment 1211 (3.9%), Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)/Comfort Measures Only 11 (0.04%), Attempt CPR/Limited Interventions 2281 (7.3%), and Attempt CPR/Full Treatment 7473 (23.9%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The most common order combinations were DNR/Comfort Measures Only, DNR/Limited Interventions and Attempt Resuscitation/Full Treatment. These three makes sense to health professionals. However, other order combinations that require interpretation at the time of a crisis were completed for about 10% of Registrants. These combinations need further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Oregon Health and Sciences University, United States. Electronic address: schmidtt@ohsu.edu.
authors.forename: Terri A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.affiliation: Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, United States.
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zive
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Oregon Health & Science University, United States.
authors.forename: Erik K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Fromme
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Oregon Health and Sciences University, United States.
authors.forename: Jennifer N B
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.affiliation: Center for Ethics in Health Care, Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Oregon Health and Science University, United States.
authors.forename: Susan W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Tolle
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D032722:Advance Care Planning / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009922:Oregon; D057240:Patient Preference / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012042:Registries; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D016414:Resuscitation Orders; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Advance care planning; Emergency Medical Services (EMS); POLST; Registries; Resuscitation orders; Scope of treatment