Using paramedics to help hospice patients avoid unwanted care

A person's end-of-life desires are most often thwarted when well-meaning loved ones see the patient in some sort of distress, says Teri Helton, program manager for Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurses Association, a nonprofit hospice program in Ventura County. And instead of calling the hospice nurse, she says, they call 911. "So the paramedics will take them to the hospital in a rush and what ends up happening is they go through tests, they go through extra trauma in the hospital instead of being treated with the dignity and kindness they would in their home," she says. Mike Taigman has long wanted to change that paradigm.