J Palliat Care
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Prognostat is an interactive Web-based prognostic tool for estimating hospice patient survival based on a patient's Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) score, age, gender, and cancer status. The tool was developed using data from 5,893 palliative care patients, which was collected at the Victoria Hospice in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, beginning in 1994. This study externally validates Prognostat with a retrospective cohort of 590 hospice patients at LifePath Hospice and Palliative Care in Florida, USA. ⋯ Though the Kaplan-Meier curves show each PPS level to be distinct and significantly different, the findings reveal low agreement between observed survival in our cohort of patients and survival predicted by the prognostic tool. Before developing a new prognostic model, researchers are encouraged to update survival estimates obtained using Prognostat with the information from their cohort of patients. If it is to be useful to patients and clinicians, Prognostat needs to explicitly report patient risk scores and estimates of baseline survival.
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Research on palliative care services in Thailand is incomplete. We conducted a countrywide cross-sectional postal survey to update the situation. We approached hospitals and asked them to respond to a questionnaire. ⋯ The criteria of having at least one trained doctor and nurse on staff was met by 17 percent of the hospitals. Only seven hospitals, most of them associated with medical schools, employed both a doctor and a nurse who had been trained in palliative care for one month or more; these professionals mainly provided hospital and home palliative care team services. Our survey reveals the lack of both health care personnel fully trained in palliative care and specialist palliative care services in Thailand.
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We aimed to identify which structures and processes of care are key determinants of overall satisfaction with palliative care. ⋯ Our finding that nursing is the most critical determinant of overall satisfaction within many structure and process domains has an important implication for clinical quality improvement and resource allocation.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Conversion of Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG) to Palliative Performance Scale (PPS), and the interchangeability of PPS and KPS in prognostic tools.
The aim of our study was to assess whether the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Performance Status, and the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) are interchangeable individually or within two prognostic tools: the Palliative Prognostic Score (PaP) and the Palliative Prognostic Index (PPI). ⋯ The PPS and the KPS can be used interchangeably as functional tools and within prognostic tools. The ECOG is interchangeable with the PPS and the KPS, but this interchangeability is population-specific.
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Comparative Study
Comparing end-of-life care for hospitalized patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer in Taiwan.
When it comes to end-of-life care, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients are often treated differently from lung cancer patients. However, few reports have compared end-of-life care between these two groups. We investigated the differences between patients with end-stage COPD and end-stage lung cancer based on end-of-life symptoms and clinical practice patterns using a retrospective study of COPD and lung cancer patients who died in an acute care hospital in Taiwan. ⋯ Differences in treatment management suggest that COPD patients receive more care aimed at prolonging life than care aimed at relieving symptoms and providing end-of-life support. It may be more difficult to determine when COPD patients are at the end-of-life stage than it is to identify when lung cancer patients are at that stage. Our findings indicate that in Taiwan, more effort should be made to give end-stage COPD patients the same access to hospice care as end-stage lung cancer patients.