[The present and future of community/home-based palliative care in Taiwan].

ABSTRACT

In Taiwan, the Department of Health (DOH) has implemented regulations and policies related to hospice and palliative care since 1995. Taiwan is the first country in Asia to have a Natural Death Act, promulgated in 2000. Although recognition of the need for palliative care in non-cancer terminally ill patients is increasing, at present, the needs of these patients are often not met. Moreover, while a majority of the population prefers to die at home, the percentage of patients who die in the home setting remains small. The palliative care system should be adjusted to improve the accessibility and continuity of care based on the needs of patients. Therefore, the Jin-Shan Branch of the National Taiwan University Hospital has run a pilot community palliative care service model since 2012. National Health Insurance reimbursement was introduced in 2014 for community-based palliative care services. Establishing a formal system of community-based palliative care should be encouraged in order to improve the quality of care at the end of life and to allow more patients to receive end-of-life care and die in their own communities. This system will require that skilled nurses provide discharge planning, symptoms control, end-of-life communications, social-resources integration, and social-support networks in order to achieve a high quality of end-of-life care.