Palliative care in hospital: Why is it so difficult?

Implementation of the ID-PALL Assessment Tool for Palliative Care Needs: A Feasibility and Prevalence Study in a Tertiary Hospital

Background

Identifying patients who require palliative care is a major public health concern. ID-PALL is the first screening instrument developed and validated to differentiate between patients in need of general versus specialized palliative care.

Objectives

This study aimed to (1) evaluate user satisfaction and the facilitators and barriers for ID-PALL use and (2) assess the prevalence of patients who require palliative care.

Design

A mixed methods study with an explanatory sequential design.

Setting/Subjects

Over a six-month period, patients admitted to two internal medicine wards of a Swiss tertiary hospital were screened by nurses and physicians with ID-PALL, two to three days after hospitalization. Nurses and physicians completed a questionnaire and participated in focus groups.

Results

Out of 969 patients, ID-PALL was completed for 420 (43.3%). Sixty percent of patients assessed needed general palliative care and 26.7% specialized palliative care. From the questionnaire and focus groups, five subthemes were identified concerning facilitators and barriers: organization, knowledge, collaboration, meaning, and characteristics of the instrument. ID-PALL was recognized as an easy-to-use and helpful instrument that facilitates discussion between health care professionals about palliative care. The difficulties in using ID-PALL in nurse-physician collaboration and the paucity of referrals to the palliative care team were highlighted.

Conclusions

ID-PALL helped to identify a very high prevalence of palliative care needs among internal medicine patients in a tertiary hospital setting. Although regarded as helpful and easy to use, challenges remain concerning interprofessional implementation and inclusion of palliative care specialists, which may be met by automatic referrals in case of specialist needs.

End-of-life use of antibiotics: a survey on how doctors decide

OBJECTIVES

Infections are the main complications in terminal diseases. Many patients die using antibiotics, which raises questions about their real usefulness and role in unnecessary prolongation of suffering. This survey evaluated how doctors use antibiotics in palliative care.

METHODS

From June to August of 2016, an online survey was conducted with 224 doctors who provide palliative care. They had to decide whether to initiate antibiotics in fictitious scenarios involving patients with suspected infections (urinary tract infection, pneumonia, sepsis) in end-of-life (from cancer, dementia, malignant stroke with sequelae, advanced COPD, multiple organ failure). Then, they had to decide whether to stop, maintain, or extend antibiotics after non-response in 72 hours.

RESULTS

88-100% of doctors decided to initiate antibiotics in all situations, except in advanced dementia (55%), and most of them decided to maintain/extend antibiotics inadequately. Factors associated with maintaining/extending antibiotics inadequately were: longer time since graduation (over 13 years; significant in all 7 clinical situations; OR range: 2.45-10.11), and not having formal specialization in palliative care (statistically significant in 3 of 7 situations).

CONCLUSIONS

Most palliative care physicians in this study decided to initiate and maintain/extend antibiotics at the end-of-life.

Care at the Very End-of-Life: Dying Cancer Patients and Their Chosen Family's Needs

The majority of cancer deaths in countries such as Australia are predictable and most likely to occur in hospital. Despite this, hospitals remain challenged by providing the best care for this fragile cohort, often believing that care with palliative intent at the very end-of-life is not the best approach to care. Given the importance that dying patients place on excellent symptom control, failing to provide good end-of-life care is likely to be contrary to the wishes of the imminently dying patient and their family. This becomes even more significant when the impact of care on the bereavement outcomes of families is considered. Given the rising numbers of predicable hospital deaths, an urgent need to address this exists, requiring health professionals to be cognisant of specific care domains already identified as significant for both patients and those closest to them in knowledge, care and affection. This non-systematic review's aims are to summarise the symptoms most feared by people imminently facing death which is defined as the terminal phase of life, where death is imminent and likely to occur within hours to days, or very occasionally, weeks. Further, this paper will explore the incidence and management of problems that may affect the dying person which are most feared by their family. The final section of this work includes a brief discussion of the most significant issues that require attention.

Hospice Admission Assessment

Hospice admission assessment is a pivotal encounter for patient/family and hospice representative. For patient/family, the admission is the threshold by which a particular level of care can commence and, symbolically, a certain marker in health status trajectory is reached. For hospice representative, the admission episode is an occasion to inaugurate an ambience that can serve to frame future hospice care experiences for the patient/family. Through a narrative lens, hospice admission assessment can be seen as experiential time and space, where patient’s and family’s stories are mindfully and deliberately witnessed and explored. Through the practice of narrative mining, the hospice representative can better understand others’ offered stories of reality, which will better inform the plan of palliation and hospice care.