title: Electronic end-of-life care registry: the Utah ePOLST initiative.
abstract: As a patient's end-of-life approaches, it is typical for the disease to be the focus of treatment instead of the dying patient. There is limited congruence between the care preferred by patients and the treatment actually delivered to patients during their end-of-life. The Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment Paradigm has been endorsed or is in development in all but three states and the District of Columbia in an effort to ensure that patients are provided with adequate opportunities to specify their end-of-life care preferences. However, most states are using paper forms to document these preferences which may be inaccessible when needed. We have developed an electronic end-of-life care registry that allows authorized users to store and retrieve information pertaining to patients' end-of-life care preferences. In this paper, we describe (a) the requirements identified for the registry from the users' perspective and (b) the design and development of the electronic registry.
authors.affiliation: Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City, UT ; University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.affiliation: Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City, UT ; University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Taillac
authors.affiliation: Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Barry
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Nangle
authors.affiliation: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.affiliation: Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Janice
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Houston
authors.affiliation: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT ; Veterans Administration, Salt Lake City, UT ; Haven Healthcare, Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Shaida
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Talebreza
authors.affiliation: Utah Department of Health, Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Leisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Finch
authors.affiliation: University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT ; Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, UT.
authors.forename: Cherie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brunker
authors.affiliation: HealthInsight, Murray, UT.
authors.forename: Deepthi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rajeev
authors.affiliation: HealthInsight, Murray, UT.
authors.forename: Heidi J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: HealthInsight, Murray, UT.
authors.forename: Christie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: North
mesh_terms: D016223:Advance Directives; D006801:Humans; D012042:Registries; D013727:Terminal Care; D014589:Utah