National guidelines suggest that the use of chemotherapy near end of life (EOL) is aggressive and is associated with poorer patient quality of life. In addition, Medicare payments for outpatient chemotherapy have decreased since around 2005–2006. In a recent study presented at the 2017 ASCO Annual Meeting, researchers evaluated the impact of U.S. payment reform and guidelines on chemotherapy use at EOL, comparing chemotherapy use at EOL in the United States and other countries.

Medication errors are difficult to quantify in home hospice care, since the patients and their families are doing most of the medication administration themselves. This is a story about how one family members’ inquisitive attitude and partnership with her husband’s hospice nurse prevented a potentially serious medication error.

As advances in medicine and technology allow more people to live longer, fuller lives, our already-burdened healthcare system is experiencing unique problems. An aging body is often accompanied by complex, debilitating illnesses. The incapacitating nature of advanced disease coupled with the fears of pain, suffering, and loss of autonomy at the end of life, bring forth the question of quality versus quantity of life. Ubiquitous opinions surrounding ethical and moral decisions make right-to-die issues a controversial but increasingly significant topic.