Serious Illness Communication Project

The purpose of the study is to evaluate the impact of implementing a "Serious Illness Conversation Guide" to guide patient/family-clinician discussions and planning about end-of-life care decisions. The goal of the intervention is to improve achievement of patient care priorities and peacefulness at the end of life for patients with serious and life-threatening illness and their families. We hypothesize that patients whose physician is trained to use and adheres to the elements of the Serious Illness Conversation Guide will demonstrate enhanced consistency between documented key priorities and care received, and will experience greater peace in the final month of life; similarly, their families will experience higher satisfaction with care.