Canadian family physician Médecin de famille canadien
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Meta Analysis
How advance directives affect hospital resource use. Systematic review of the literature.
To assess whether advance directives influence resource use by hospitalized patients. ⋯ Little evidence supports the hypothesis that advance directives reduce resource use by hospitalized patients. Some retrospective studies have shown savings, but their conclusions are weakened by shortcomings in study design. Prospective trials, which have better experimental methods, have demonstrated no evidence of cost savings with the use of advance directives.