End-of-life care often still hectic, aggressive

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Fewer elderly Americans are dying in acute care hospitals than were a decade ago, according to a new study of where Medicare beneficiaries spend their final months of life. However, between 2000 and 2009 there was also an increase in the proportion of people admitted to the intensive care unit in the month before they died – suggesting there hasn’t been a general trend toward less aggressive end-of-life care. “It shows that we’re not yet providing the type of care in the place of care that necessarily may be what people most want,” said Dr. …