Determining the appropriate intensity of investigation and treatment for individual elderly patients in long-term care settings can present a significant challenge to physicians, especially when patients are incompetent to decide for themselves. However, respecting established intervention levels may represent an even greater challenge, given the realities of coverage by on-call physicians. This paper describes a new Intervention Level Scale for competent as well as incompetent long-term care elderly, and its validation as a communication tool between attending and on-call physicians. Specifically studied were (a) concordance of interventions, (b) whether prior knowledge of an intervention level by an on-call physician was considered useful, (c) applicability of the scale in different institutions and (d) necessity of physician training for optimal use. The scale's uniqueness resides in the fact that it is based on personal values of life, rather than institutional resources, and it incorporates directives on family contact.
