Patient satisfaction with hospice day care

Abstract

Day hospice allows patients to remain living at home while attending a specialist palliative care center. This paper describes patient feedback (n=26) on medical, social and therapeutic out-patient palliative care services provided at one such facility in Northern Ireland. Medical records of all attending patients (n=50) were reviewed, and patients completed a semi-structured questionnaire. Patients' comments on day hospice were largely positive. A number of suggestions for new service activities were made, and the need for education of multi-professional team members was recognized. Respondents recognized that day hospice allowed respite care for the family. Patients were very appreciative of the care that was offered--their concern for its continuance perhaps restraining any criticism they had. Such findings provide the opportunity for health professionals to gain further insights into day care to better meet patients' needs.

Patients’ perceptions of palliative care quality in hospice inpatient care, hospice day care, palliative units in nursing homes, and home care: a cross-sectional study

“…Previous research supports the findings of the present study with regard to patients perceiving that hospice day care provides high-quality care for the sociocultural and identity-oriented aspects of care [37, 42, 64, 65]. …”

“…The factor “planning and cooperation of service” is an area for improvement, and within this factor it was planning of nursing care, cooperation between personnel, and coordination of all services that the patient received that showed significant values. Parts of these findings contradict the findings of other studies in which patients perceived that the information received about living with their disease was sufficient [67] and that hospice day care was well organized [64]. However, the need for improvement in such care areas as information and continuity of care has previously been described [2, 68], although not specifically for this care context, so it needs to be explored further.…”

“…Hospice day care may be organized as a supplement to other care services, and has previously been described as having either a “medical” or a “social” focus of care [66], and that benefits are likely to be psychosocial or spiritual [37]. Even so, patients in previous studies perceived access to medical staff as important and have evaluated hospice day care as providing high-quality medical care [64, 67]. The findings in the present study – that the importance of medical care scored higher than the care received – have not been described previously.…”

Does a social model of hospice day care affect advanced cancer patients’ use of other health and social services? A prospective quasi-experimental trial

“…It is set in the context of social interaction, mutual support and friendship and may provide some physical care and respite to carers." [3][4][5][6][7] Descriptive studies of palliative and HDC report patient satisfaction and value of the opportunities for social support and taking part in activities [1,[8][9][10][11][12] but there are no randomized trials and few comparative evaluations, even of early services. Conducting randomized controlled trials in HDC is now difficult.…”

27 Palliative care day services operate through therapeutic relationships

“…Patients attend on a regular basis, typically receiving a mix of clinical and social care. Despite their popularity and general satisfaction (Kernohan et al, 2006), there is ambiguity concerning the content. Aim To provide in-depth knowledge of day services by mapping services at three Marie Curie Hospice sites.…”