Advance Care Planning / Behandlung im Voraus Planen: Konzept zur Förderung einer patientenzentrierten Gesundheitsversorgung

The potential of advance care planning (ACP) for patient-centred care has only been appreciated in Germany in the past few years. It has drawn increasing attention, however, since it was incorporated into the German Hospice and Palliative Care Law (HPG) in 2015. Residents of nursing care homes and homes for people with disabilities can now receive ACP supported by qualified facilitators and subsidised by Germany’s health insurance companies. ACP stimulates individuals to address questions relating to their own life and death, and it allows them to limit life-sustaining treatment under individually defined circumstances. It puts patients at the centre of their care programme, even under critical conditions, and thus strengthens patient autonomy. Consequently, however, it also raises a number of ethical and legal questions. The editors of this book have a strong interest in the ethical and legal issues that arise in end-of-life care. For this volume, they have asked experts in law, medicine and theological ethics to reflect upon ACP. With contributions by Michael Coors, Stephan Ernst, Monika Führer, Martin Hein, Paul Hüster, Wolfram Höfling, Kathrin Knochel, Volker Lipp, Andreas Lob-Hüdepohl, Georg Marckmann, Stefan Meier, Thomas Otten, Stephan Rixen, Jochen Sautermeister, Jürgen in der Schmitten, Josef Schuster