Assessing quality of end-of-life hospital care in a southern European regional health service

Abstract

End-of-life in cancer patients was diagnosed too late. The quality of care in palliative care units and by home hospitalization service was better than that in conventional hospitalization. Nevertheless, there were areas for improvement in the three modalities of care.

Quality of end-of-life treatment for cancer patients in general wards and the palliative care unit at a regional cancer center in Japan: a retrospective chart review

“…Strong opioids were used significantly less in general wards; however, usage was better than that reported in previous studies: Opioid usage in the last 48 h of life was 19-83% in general wards [4,9,21,22] and 55-85% in PCU [10,22,26,35]. However, fentanyl was far less used in general wards.…”

“…After publication of the SUPPORT study, many studies reported inadequacy of end-of-life treatment in general wards. Especially in the last 48 h of life, many patients received inappropriate life-sustaining treatment [4][5][6][7][8][9] and inadequate pain and symptom management [4][5][6][9][10][11]. The current status of end-of-life treatment should be investigated to improve the clinical care of dying hospitalized patients.…”

Symptoms, care needs and diagnosis in palliative cancer patients in acute care hospitals: A 5-year follow-up survey

“…This increased the palliative care competence of the area and may be a reason why the prevalence of hospitalized palliative cancer patients decreased in the study period. Cancer patients' symptoms can indeed be improved by hospital based palliative care teams [13] and palliative home care can reduce the need for hospitalization in acute care hospitals if the care is provided by trained personnel [14].…”