Journal of palliative medicine
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The majority of U.S. cancer patients express the desire to die at home, though most do not, and are often subjected to ineffective therapies near the end of life (EOL). In 2008 the U.K. Department of Health and National Health Care Service implemented a set of 10 quality markers to improve EOL care (EOLC) for seriously ill persons. Data show that this intervention has had a positive impact on patients' EOLC. ⋯ Quality indicators for EOLC were unmet in cancer patients admitted to the ICU in the last two weeks of life. Hospital-wide provider education about the need for early advance care planning with all seriously ill patients has been implemented in an effort to improve quality of care at EOL.
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Collaboration between palliative medicine and the intensive care unit (ICU) represents best practice and offers important benefits. However, achieving effective collaboration between these two specialties can be challenging. ⋯ Integrating palliative medicine specialists into intensive care was associated with a significant increase in use of palliative medicine services and a significant decrease in ICU length of stay for referred patients without a significant increase in mortality. The screening tool effectively identified patients at high risk of death. Given the high mortality rate of the unreferred patients, the criteria could be more widely adopted by ICU physicians to consider expanding palliative medicine referrals.
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This study examined the impact of palliative home nursing care on rates of hospital 30-day readmissions. ⋯ Palliative home care may offer benefits to health systems by allowing patients to remain at home and thereby avoiding 30-day rehospitalizations.
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Palliative care is increasingly viewed as a care option that should not only be offered to patients very near the end of life. An important question is whether increased use of palliative care soon after a patient's referral will improve patient functioning, an aspect of quality of life. ⋯ Increased use of palliative care was associated with improved patient functioning. This held true at very low as well as very high levels of initial functioning. The strongest predictor of subsequent patient functioning is their initial status. Accounting for patient-specific differences to precisely determine the impact of palliative care on patient functioning is difficult.
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Episodic breathlessness is a common and distressing symptom in advanced cancer and nonmalignant diseases but there is a lack of evidence on the characteristics of the symptom. ⋯ Our study reveals clinically important information on the characteristics of episodic breathlessness in patients with advanced diseases. Findings have implications for the treatment of episodic breathlessness since most short-acting drugs in use have a longer onset of action compared to the duration of episodes. We need to determine patient-relevant therapeutic targets for future evaluation of adequate pharmacological and nonpharmacological management options that are urgently warranted.