Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST)

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has created a file of the prevalence of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) documents in California, limited to residents in skilled nursing facilities (SNF). This file enables a comparison of the proportion of nursing home residents that are reported to have a completed POLST form in their medical chart, by county and year, between January 1, 2011 and June 30, 2020. POLST treatment preferences are actionable as a Doctor’s Order if accompanied with the signatures of either the patient or a legally recognized decision maker, and that of a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant. Counts of nursing homes and of distinct nursing home residents are also provided.

Visuals include percentages of California skilled nursing facility residents with completed or unsigned POLST forms statewide and by county, and completion of medical treatment sections of signed POLST forms statewide and by county.

Resources include POLST forms and All Facility Letters (AFL) sent by CDPH to facilities regarding POLST and Section S information.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
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identifier 884c9684-de66-48e7-a298-ce44519d0c00
issued 2020-02-12T23:21:21.508595
modified 2021-04-30T23:50:35.538749
publisher California Department of Public Health
resource-type Dataset
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Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • advance-directive
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • california-department-of-public-health
  • cardiopulmonary-resuscitation
  • chcq
  • ckan
  • cms
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  • mds
  • national
  • north-america
  • physician-orders-for-life-sustaining-treatment
  • polst
  • section-s
  • skilled-nursing-facility
  • united-states
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer Center for Health Care Quality, Licensing & Certification Program
maintainer_email opendata@cdph.ca.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-20T20:23:58.645007
metadata_modified 2025-11-20T20:23:58.645011
notes The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has created a file of the prevalence of Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) documents in California, limited to residents in skilled nursing facilities (SNF). This file enables a comparison of the proportion of nursing home residents that are reported to have a completed POLST form in their medical chart, by county and year, between January 1, 2011 and June 30, 2020. POLST treatment preferences are actionable as a Doctor’s Order if accompanied with the signatures of either the patient or a legally recognized decision maker, and that of a physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant. Counts of nursing homes and of distinct nursing home residents are also provided. Visuals include percentages of California skilled nursing facility residents with completed or unsigned POLST forms statewide and by county, and completion of medical treatment sections of signed POLST forms statewide and by county. Resources include POLST forms and All Facility Letters (AFL) sent by CDPH to facilities regarding POLST and Section S information.
num_resources 9
num_tags 19
title Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST)