Development and Implementation of a Survey to Assess Health-Care Provider's Competency, Attitudes, and Knowledge About Perinatal Palliative Care.

Perinatal palliative care is an emerging area of health care. To date, no published tools assess health-care provider's knowledge and level of comfort in providing such care. A 2-phase study was undertaken to develop and implement a survey to evaluate the self-assessed competency, attitudes, and knowledge of health-care providers working in perinatal palliative care. Phase 1 included a review of the literature and appraisal of palliative and death-related instruments to inform the initial draft of the Perinatal Palliative Care Survey (PPCS). Twenty-four Canadian pediatric palliative care specialists critiqued the PPCS, establishing its face and content validity. Phase 2 involved administering the PPCS at 4 sites across Canada, resulting in 167 responses from nurses, physicians, and midwives. The majority of participants responded that they possessed a degree of comfort in providing perinatal palliative care, particularly with assessing pain (76%), managing pain (69%), assessing other symptoms (85%), and managing other symptoms (78%). Two areas where participants level of confidence or extreme confidence was diminished included having conversations with families about the possibility of their infant dying (55%) and knowing and accessing community palliative care resources (32%). Responses in the knowledge section identified gaps related to opioid use, pharmacological interventions for breathlessness, pain behaviors, and tolerance developed to opioids and sedatives. Eighty-six percent of respondents stated that if education about palliative care was made available, they would participate with priority topics identified as communication with families (75%), managing symptoms (69%), pain management (69%), and ethical issues (66%). The PPCS provides a useful assessment to determine the educational needs of health-care providers delivering perinatal palliative care.

Understanding How Bereaved Parents Cope With Their Grief to Inform the Services Provided to Them.

Our objective was to develop a rich description of how parents experience their grief in the first year after the death of their child, and how various bereavement follow-up and support services helped them during this time, with the aim of informing follow-up and support services offered to bereaved parents. Our findings situated parents' individual experiences of coping within the social and institutional contexts in which they grieved. In the first year after the death of their child, parents regulated their intense feelings of grief through loss-oriented, restoration-oriented, and/or meaning reconstruction strategies. Often, parents' relationships with others and many of the bereavement follow-up and support services helped them in this regard. This article also explores how the results may aid service providers in accompanying parents in a way that optimizes outcomes for these parents.

Ulcerative colitis-associated hospitalization costs: a population-based study.

BACKGROUND: Hospitalization costs for ulcerative colitis (UC) following the introduction of infliximab have not been evaluated. OBJECTIVE: To study predictors of costs for UC patients who were hospitalized for a flare or colectomy. METHODS: Population-based surveillance identified adults (≥18 years of age) admitted to hospital for UC flare or colectomy between 2001 and 2009 in the Calgary Health Zone (Alberta). Medical charts were reviewed and patients stratified into three admission types: responsive to inpatient medical therapy (n=307); emergent colectomy (n=227); and elective colectomy (n=208). The annual median cost with interquartile range (IQR) was calculated. Linear regression determined the effect of admission type on hospital charges after adjusting for age, sex, smoking, comorbidities, disease extent, medication use (eg, infliximab) and year. The adjusted cost increase was presented as the percent increase with 95% CIs. Joinpoint analysis assessed for an inflection point in hospital cost after the introduction of infliximab. RESULTS: Median hospitalization cost for UC flare, emergent colectomy and elective colectomy, respectively, were: $5,499 (IQR $3,374 to $8,904), $23,698 (IQR $17,981 to $32,385) and $14,316 (IQR $11,932 to $18,331). Adjusted hospitalization costs increased approximately 6.0% annually (95% CI 4.5% to 7.5%). Adjusted costs were higher for patients who underwent an elective colectomy (percent increase cost 179.8% [95% CI 151.6% to 211.1%]) or an emergent colectomy (percent increase cost 211.1% [95% CI 183.2% to 241.6%]) than medically responsive patients. Infliximab in hospital was an independent predictor of increased costs (percent increase cost 69.5% [95% CI 49.2% to 92.5%]). No inflection points were identified. CONCLUSION: Hospitalization costs for UC increased due to colectomy and infliximab.

Postoperative complications and mortality following colectomy for ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Complications after colectomy for ulcerative colitis (UC) have not been well characterized in large, population-based studies. We characterized postoperative in-hospital complications, stratified them by severity, and assessed independent clinical predictors, including use of immunosuppressants. METHODS: We performed population-based surveillance using administrative databases to identify all adults (≥18 y) who had an International Classification of Diseases-9th/10th revisions code for UC and a colectomy from 1996 to 2009. All medical charts were reviewed. The primary outcome was severe postoperative complications, including in-hospital mortality. Logistic regression was used to assess predictors of complications after colectomy and then restricted to patients undergoing emergent or elective surgeries. RESULTS: Of the 666 UC patients who underwent a colectomy, a postoperative complication occurred in 27.0% and the mortality rate was 1.5%. Independent predictors of postoperative complications were age (for patients >64 vs 18-34 y: odds ratio [OR], 1.95; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07-3.54), comorbidities (>2 vs none: OR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.06-3.37), and admission status (emergent vs elective colectomy: OR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.14-2.30). Significant risk factors for an emergent colectomy included time from admission to colectomy (>14 vs 3-14 d: OR, 3.32; 95% CI, 1.62-6.80) and a preoperative complication (≥1 vs 0: OR, 3.04; 95% CI, 1.33-6.91). A prescription of immunosuppressants before colectomies did not increase the risk for postoperative complications. CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative complications frequently occur after colectomy for UC, predominantly among elderly patients with multiple comorbidities. Patients who were admitted to the hospital under emergency conditions and did not respond to medical treatment had worse outcomes when surgery was performed 14 or more days after admission.