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    • This is a Non-Federal dataset covered by different Terms of Use than Data.gov.

    Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) (ARCHIVED)

    Metadata Updated: February 23, 2026

    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 December 31, 2023. 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.

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. Non-Federal: This dataset is covered by different Terms of Use than Data.gov. License: See this page for license information.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date November 27, 2024
    Metadata Updated Date February 23, 2026

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from State of California

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date November 27, 2024
    Metadata Updated Date February 23, 2026
    Publisher California Department of Public Health
    Maintainer
    Identifier ba7dd81a-4b55-495b-b9c9-d4eb5ea1115e
    Data First Published 2020-02-12T23:21:21.508595
    Data Last Modified 2026-02-12T22:33:55.483095
    Category Health and Human Services
    Public Access Level public
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id 68d8590c-f3d3-4ad5-9627-c59d10856936
    Harvest Source Id 3ba8a0c1-5dc2-4897-940f-81922d3cf8bc
    Harvest Source Title State of California
    License http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-by
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash d341e60235979f4e13afa324ae246469b040d34da88faf1accd61fcae2af51fd
    Source Schema Version 1.1

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