Physicians’ beliefs may override cancer patients’ wishes for end-of-life care, study finds
Dr. Nancy Keating has seen what too much health care looks like. The Harvard Medical School professor recalls a patient with metastatic lung cancer who, despite not wanting chemotherapy, was convinced by her doctor to try a more targeted treatment. The patient spent the end of her life in the hospital – the exact place she had hoped to avoid.
Keating, also a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, studies how to deliver high-quality care to patients with cancer. Her latest work examines the factors that contribute to large hospital-by-hospital differences in end-of-life spending for cancer patients. The new study reveals that the variation in the intensity of treatment stems more from the availability of services and physicians’ discomfort navigating end-of-life choices than from patients’ wishes.
From surveys,
