The study, which was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, included Medicare data on 9,947 physicians.
“The overall narrative that doctors die differently is false,” said senior author Stacy Fischer, MD. “We found that doctors used more hospice care — about two days on average — but when you look at the length of stay in hospital in the last months of life, there is no difference between them and the rest of population.”
The authors of the study say they hope the findings will prompt a national conversation about what drives patients to pursue end-of-life care that does little to improve their actual quantity or quality of life.
More articles on end-of-life care:
Survey: Massachusetts physicians, patients fail to prepare for end-of-life care
Audit finds British hospitals fail to inform families of patient ‘do not resuscitate’ orders
Hopkins physician writes, debuts play about end-of-life decisions
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