goals of care

Introduction

Patient's preferences or priorities for treatment of illness.

goals of care include longevity, function, & quality of life

Component of one of the 5 Ms of geriatrics

Clinical significance

• a 1st step in counseling a patient about treatment options & a care plan
• goals of care discussions with serious illness promote patient-centered outcomes at the end of life

Complications

• goals of care are too frequently not transferred across care settings

Management

• in the absence of established goals of care (advance directives) or an available surrogate decision maker, full resuscitation efforts are indicated

Clinical trials

• a randomized clinical trial (electronic health record-based) to promote goals-of-care discussions had litte impact on occurrence of discussions

Additional terms

• advance directives
• shared decision making; patient preferecnce