• J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2017

    Palliative Medicine and Preparedness Planning for Patients Receiving Left Ventricular Assist Device as Destination Therapy-Challenges to Measuring Impact and Change in Institutional Culture.

    • Brandon P Verdoorn, Angela J Luckhardt, Sara E Wordingham, Shannon M Dunlay, and Keith M Swetz.
    • Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
    • J Pain Symptom Manage. 2017 Aug 1; 54 (2): 231-236.

    ContextAlthough left ventricular assist devices as destination therapy (DT-LVAD) can improve survival, quality of life, and functional capacity in well-selected patients with advanced heart failure, there remain unique challenges to providing quality end-of-life care in this population. Palliative care involvement is universally recommended, but how to best operationalize this care and measure success is unknown.ObjectivesTo characterize the process of preparedness planning (PP) for patients receiving DT-LVAD at our institution and better understand opportunities for quality improvement or procedural transferability.MethodsRetrospective review of 107 consecutive patients undergoing DT-LVAD implantation at a single institution between 2009 and 2013. Information regarding demographics, advance care planning, and mortality was abstracted from the medical record and analyzed. Findings were compared with a historical cohort who received DT-LVAD implantation at the same institution before the development of PP (2003-2009).ResultsMean age of patients receiving DT-LVAD was 64.3 years (SD ± 10.7). At last follow-up, 46 patients (43%) had died. Mean post-DT-LVAD survival in this group was 1.1 years (SD ± 1.2). Eighty-nine percent of patient had palliative care consultation before implantation, and 70% completed PP. Although 66% of patients completed an advance directive (AD) preimplantation, only two ADs (2.8%) specifically mentioned DT-LVAD and none addressed core elements of PP. AD completion rates improved from 47% before our policy on PP (P = 0.012).ConclusionA disconnect was evident between the rigor of PP discussions and the content of ADs in the medical record. We urge that future efforts focus on narrowing this gap.Copyright © 2017 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…