Learning about a new concept for ensuring care based on patient wishes.
Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment, or MOST, is a one-page physician order set designed to guide healthcare treatment for seriously ill adults, most of whom are in long-term care or hospice care. It is similar to other health-care directives used nationally, and can complement a living will or stand alone. Here in Buncombe County, MOST has been successfully piloted in four long-term care facilities.
MOST is based on in-depth conversations with patients and family. The MOST document is printed on bright pink paper (to make it easy to locate in a patient's record) and designed to be packaged together with the yellow Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order, if one exists. The forms, in a clear plastic sleeve, travel with the patient from health care facility to hospital and back again.
For more information about MOST, contact the Department of Pastoral Care at 828-213-1080. Outside regular business hours, you may reach a chaplain by dialing 828-213-1111 and asking to speak to the "Chaplain of the Day."
