• Alejandra Palma, Fernando Ihl, Estefanía Acuña, and Francisca Plaza-Parrochia.
• Departamento de Medicina Interna, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
• Rev Med Chil. 2022 May 1; 150 (5): 650655650-655.

BackgroundPalliative Medicine (PM) is a specialty whose objective is to prevent and alleviate suffering associated with advanced diseases. Hospital palliative medicine has benefits in symptom control, quality of life and cost containment. Hospital PM support teams that serve as referral specialists are in charge of a PM care model.AimTo describe the clinical experience of a PM support team in a tertiary hospital in Chile.Material And MethodsReview of clinical records of patients referred to a hospital PM support team between March 2015 and July 2018. Administrative data of referrals, sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients, their investigated problems and the interventions proposed by the PM team were described.ResultsDuring the study period, 790 referrals were registered, most of them from the internal medicine department (31%) or critical care (24%). During the study period, the number of annual referrals increased from 177 to 237 and the time lapse after hospital admission decreased from five to three days. The mean age of patients was 65.8 years and their main diagnosis was an oncological disease in 81%. The most frequently identified symptoms were fatigue in 71% of patients, depression in 68% and pain in 60%. The main interventions proposed by the PM team were communication support in 64% of patients, analgesia in 62% and education for family caregivers in 49%.ConclusionsThe hospital PM team proposes a care model that allows the evaluation and a therapeutic approach for patients suffering from advanced diseases, using a multidimensional perspective including their families.

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