Quality of End-of-Life Care To Be Examined in New Jersey

The New Jersey Hospital Association is holding a meeting of hospital medical directors to address patient end-of-life care. The medical directors are looking at a variety of solutions to improve care, including increasing use of palliative care, hiring end-of-life specialists, and promoting the use of advanced directives. The Star-Ledger recently completed a series on end-of-life care in the state, "New Jersey's High Cost of Dying," which showed Medicare patients in the state see more doctors, have more tests, and undergo more procedures at the end of life than in other states.