Journal of palliative medicine
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Palliative care is associated with decreased treatment intensity and improved quality for individual patients at the end of life, but little is known about how hospital-wide outcomes are affected by the diffusion of palliative care principles. ⋯ Hospital-based palliative care programs alone may not be sufficient to impact ICU LOS or hospice length of enrollment for all chronically ill older adults admitted to hospitals. Future work should measure hospital-wide palliative care outcomes and effects of core palliative knowledge and skills provided by nonpalliative care specialists.
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Specialty societies recommend patients with advanced cancer receive early exposure to palliative care and exposure to hospice care. ⋯ There remains a gap between recommended timing of supportive services and real-world practice of care. Results suggest that difficulties in prognosticating death are not fully responsible for underexposure to hospice.
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Methadone offers many advantages for treating cancer pain. However, its pharmacokinetic profile makes its use as a full-dose opioid challenging. ⋯ A significant reduction in pain can be seen rapidly after the addition of methadone as a coanalgesic, particularly among patients with high pain intensity. More studies are needed to corroborate the efficacy of methadone as an adjunct to opioids.
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Respiratory symptoms, dyspnea, cough, and death rattle, are common and distressing in advanced cancer patients. Palliation of respiratory symptoms is important to improve quality of life in cancer patients and their families/caregivers. Currently published clinical guidelines for the management of these respiratory symptoms in cancer patients did not cover the topics comprehensively or were not based on formal process for the development of clinical guidelines. ⋯ More future clinical researches and continuous guideline updates are required to improve the quality of respiratory symptom management in cancer patients.
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Empirical research suggests that the quality of patient care at the end of life (EOL) is influenced by the effectiveness of the collaboration between the general practitioners (GPs) and hospital physicians (HPs). ⋯ The research showed that Swiss GPs were concerned with the quality of their patients' EOL care and the current level of GP/HP collaboration. GPs appealed for greater involvement with EOL care decisions based on their relationship of care and knowledge of patient preferences. These findings require further critical evaluation to explore the potential advantages for patient care. Existing evidence suggests that there are measurable health benefits from successful GP/HP collaborations. A change in the way GPs maintain involvement with their patients during hospitalizations would be warranted if it resulted in a better use of resources, better patient experiences, and better health outcomes.