Patients’ Perspectives on Approaches to Facilitate Completion of Advance Directives:

Background:Little is understood about the different ways patients complete advance directives (ADs), which is most commonly through lawyers and increasingly using websites.Objective:To understand patients’ perspectives on different approaches to facilitating AD completion, the value of legal regulation of ADs, and the use of a web-based platform to create an AD.Design:Semi-structured interviews with patients.Setting/Participants:We purposively sampled 25 patients at least 70 years of age or with a chronic disease from 2 internal medicine clinics.Measurements:Interviews focused on experiences and perspectives creating ADs, including facilitation by lawyers, health-care professionals, and websites. Feedback on a website prototype was also obtained. Responses were analyzed with modified grounded theory until thematic saturation was achieved.Results:Although a majority of participants with ADs had used lawyers, participants were ambivalent about the benefits of lawyer facilitation. Most valued both the medica...