Policies and Standards – Guidance to Clinicians & Health Systems

The following have been approved and enacted by the Oregon POLST Coalition:

Maintaining Quality – Completion of a POLST form should not be counted as a quality measure.

• A video explaining why not to count POLST forms as outlined in an editorial by Susan Tolle, MD in The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Aligning POLST Orders with Wishes: Time to Put Evidence into Practice.

• Tolle SW. Aligning POLST Orders with Wishes: Time to Put Evidence into Practice. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2021 April 7. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.17150.

• Do Not Count POLST Forms as an Advance Care Planning Quality Measure – June 2018

Oregon DHS Alerts for Long-Term Care Facilities and Group Homes Regarding POLST

• Office of Developmental Disabilities Services (ODDS) Fact Sheet on Oregon POLST – Aug 2020

• Policy Transmittal Developmental Disabilities Services – Feb 2020

• Adult Foster Home Provider Alert – Feb 2019

• Community Based Care Provider Alert: Assisted Living, Residential Care, Memory Care Facilities – April 2020

• Nursing Facility Provider Alert – Feb 2019

Recommendation on Standards for Hospital Transfer/Discharge Forms

• Short version – May 2017

• Long version (includes supplemental cases) – May 2017

Recommendations for Locating Existing POLST Forms

• Oregon American College of Emergency Physicians Recommends Protocol to Check POLST in the Emergency Department – Sept 2019

• Recommendation for POLST EHR One-Click Access – Oct 2018

Essential POLST Form Elements & Summary of Historical Changes to Form Elements

• Oregon Does Not Endorse the 2019 “Uniform POLST Form”: Six Essential POLST Form Element Recommendations – Sept 2019

• Removal of Section about Artificially Administered Nutrition – Jan 2019

  • “Time to Remove Feeding Tubes from POLST” – GeriPal Podcast, 2/15/19
    

  • Tolle SW, Jimenez VM, Eckstrom E. It is Time to Remove Feeding Tubes From POLST Forms. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2019 Mar;67(3):626-628. doi: 10.1111/jgs.15775. Epub 2019 Jan 31.

  • Tolle SW, Jimenez VM, Eckstrom E. Reply to Artificial Nutrition Belongs on POLST J Am Geriatr Soc. 2019 Sept;67(9):1987-1989. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.16090. Epub 2019 Aug 14.

  • Oregon Academy of Family Physicians Endorses Removal of Artificially Administered Nutrition Section – Jan 2020

  • Oregon American College of Emergency Physicians Endorses Removal of Tube Feeding Section – Sept 2019

  • Oregon Hospice & Palliative Care Association Endorses Removal of Artificially Administered Nutrition Section – Jan 2020

  • Oregon Geriatrics Society Endorses Removal of Artificially Administered Nutrition Section – Nov 2019

• Oregon POLST Coalition’s Reaffirms Endorsement of PAs Ability to Sign POLST Forms – Oct 2019

• Summary of Recommendations for POLST Form Elements Changes: 1993 through June 2018

Reasons Why Oregon POLST Separated from the POLST Paradigm Office in June of 2017

• Statement on Oregon POLST 2017 Separation from National POLST – May 2018

Policies and Innovations related to COVID-19

• Sharing POLST Policies and Innovations related to COVID-19 – April 2020