When you talk about your Goals of Care Designation (GCD) with your healthcare provider, they will tell you about 3 general approaches to care: medical care, comfort care, and resuscitative care. Each approach has sub-categories that further define care goals, wishes, and values. The following information can help you prepare for this conversation with your healthcare provider. You can also watch a video about the 3 goals of care to learn more.
In this approach to care, you’re expected to benefit from and value any appropriate medical tests and treatments that can be offered, excluding a stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) and resuscitative care (see more about resuscitative care below). Locations for care (such as at home, hospital, and a care facility) are considered depending on what is medically appropriate and in keeping with your wishes and values.
M1 is appropriate for people who are unlikely to survive an attempted resuscitation, or when resuscitation is unlikely to leave them in a state of living they value.
M2 is for people who are frail or chronically (long-term) ill and their health is more likely to get worse rather than improve with going to the hospital. It’s also appropriate for people who no longer want the kind of treatments available in the hospital or when being in the hospital is unlikely to leave them in a state of living they value.
In this approach to care, the aim of medical tests and treatments is to manage symptoms of the disease and maintain function when cure or control of an underlying condition is no longer possible or desired. Transfer to a hospital may occur in order to better understand or control symptoms.
C1 is appropriate for people who are very frail or living with serious illness and are unlikely to respond to medical treatments for prolonging life. It’s for people who want to focus on quality of life more than length of life.
In this approach to care, any appropriate medical tests and treatments that can be offered —including the intensive care unit (ICU) and resuscitation (pushing on the chest or CPR)—and that are likely to help you will be used.
R1 is appropriate for people who are likely to recover from an illness and return to how they were before. They want this attempt made to prolong life, even if it may leave them with lasting changes to their health and abilities.
R2 is appropriate for people whose heart is unlikely to restart if it stops, but they have an illness that might benefit from a breathing machine and intensive care. R2 is also appropriate when CPR is unlikely to leave a person in a state of living that they value.
R3 is appropriate when CPR and a breathing machine are unlikely to help a person live longer, but their illness might respond to other intensive care treatments. R3 is also used when CPR and a breathing machine are unlikely to leave a person in a state of living that they value.
