The quality of medical care at the end-of-life in the USA: existing barriers and examples of process and outcome measures

摘要: Context: Cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the USA and despite many recent advances in detection and treatment, over half a million cancer patients in this country will die from their disease each year. Objective: Using cancer as a prototype, we provide a conceptual framework to identify and review barriers to optimal end-of-life care and propose examples of linked process and outcome measures that could be used to evaluate whether standards of optimal end-of-life care are being achieved. Methods: We propose a …