How COVID-19 Changed Advance Care Planning: Insights From the West Virginia Center for End-of-Life Care

CONTEXT: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) led to increased attention nationally on advance care planning. OBJECTIVES: To describe the impact COVID-19 had on advance care planning based on changes in the calls to the West Virginia Center for End-of-Life Care (center) and in the volume and types of documents requested from and submitted to the center and its e-Directive Registry (registry). METHODS: A retrospective and observational analysis between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020 of calls to the center; advance directives downloaded from the center's Web site as well as mailed to the public and medical orders mailed to health care professionals on request to the center; and advance directives and medical orders submitted to the registry. RESULTS: The nature of calls changed to COVID-19-related topics, including confirmation of forms on the registry, urgent desire to initiate advance care planning, temporary rescindment of treatment-limiting forms, and questions on how to honor patients' wishes in advance directives and medical orders in light of their COVID-19 status. Also in the first six months of 2020, the center distributed more advance directives than it had during the same months in the last five years and more medical orders than it had in the preceding four years when there were no revisions to the medical order forms required by changes to the state law. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 resulted in a new sense of urgency regarding advance care planning by West Virginians with increased attention to document their wishes and ensure that they were in the registry.