Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
-
Support Care Cancer · May 2016
Characteristics and outcomes of patients with advanced cancer evaluated by a palliative care team at an emergency center. A retrospective study.
Patients with advanced cancer may be referred for a palliative care consultation (PC) from a hospital emergency center (EC) or as inpatients. However, research about symptoms and outcomes in patients with advanced cancer who receive PC at the EC is limited. ⋯ Referral to PC from the EC led to earlier delivery of PC with subsequent earlier control of symptoms. EC patients who received PC consultations and were hospitalized had shorter hospitalizations than PC referral in the inpatient area. More research is needed to describe the impact of PC services on symptom assessment and management and on goals and plan of care in patients with advanced illness admitted to the EC.
-
Support Care Cancer · May 2016
Do-not-resuscitate orders and related factors among family surrogates of patients in the emergency department.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders and to identify relevant factors influencing the DNR decision-making process by patients' surrogates in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ The findings of this study indicated that surrogates of patients who were more severe in disease condition, whose physicians initiated the discussion of palliative care, and who stayed longer in hospital were important factors affecting the surrogates' DNR decision-making. Therefore, early initiation of DNR discussions is suggested to improve end-of-life care.