The Quality of Dying and Death of Advanced Cancer Patients in Palliative Care and Its Association With Place of Death and Quality of Care.

The quality of dying and death is currently considered an objective to achieve at the end of life. The aim of this study is to analyze the quality of dying and death of advanced cancer patients in palliative care and its association with place of death and quality of care from the perspective of family caregivers. This is a cross-sectional study. The study sample included 72 family caregivers of advanced cancer patients in palliative care. For the evaluation of the quality of dying and death, the Spanish version of the Quality of Dying and Death Questionnaire was used. Quality of care was evaluated with the Palliative Care Outcome Scale. The mean (SD) total score on the Spanish version of the Quality of Dying and Death Questionnaire was 64.56 (20.97). The quality of dying and death was higher when the patients died at home, 70.45 (19.70), and it was positively correlated with quality of care (r = 0.61). Palliative care contributes to achieving a satisfactory quality of dying and death in Spanish advanced cancer patients. Further studies that evaluate interventions for improving the quality of dying and death in the advanced cancer population are needed.

[Assessment of IDC-Pal as a Diagnostic Tool for Family Physicians to Identify Patients with Complex Palliative Care Needs in Germany: a Pilot Study]. / Evaluation des spanischen Diagnostik-Tools für die Komplexität in der Palliativmedizin, IDC-Pal, durch Hausärzte in Deutschland: Eine Pilotstudie.

BACKGROUND: Palliative medicine is an essential component of the health care system. Basic palliative care should be provided by primary care services (family physician and home nursing) with palliative-medical basic qualification. Often it is very difficult to identify patients that would profit from a specialized palliative care team. For the evaluation of the case complexity of a palliative patient, we present a Spanish diagnostic tool IDC-Pal, which tries to specify when, why and where a palliative patient should be referred. The aims of this study were the translation and cultural adaptation of the diagnostic tool for complexity in palliative care IDC-Pal to the German language, and the measurement of its feasibility and face validity. METHODS: During the first phase, a forward-backward translation with linguistic and cultural adaptation of the tool IDC-Pal as well as the validation of its content by a review committee was performed. During the second phase, the preliminary version of the tool was tested by 38 family physicians that were asked for a qualitative assessment using a 10-points Likert scale (1 = "strongly disagree" and 10 = "totally agree"). Finally, a definitive version was developed. RESULTS: The translation and adaptation were achieved without major problems. Both feasibility and apparent validity of the tool IDC-Pal were rated as high. The mean response in the Likert scale was 7.79, with a SD of 0.36. Participants strongly agreed on the apparent validity of the tool with a mean of 7.82 and a SD of 0.26 and on its feasibility with a mean of 7.79, and a SD of 0.39. CONCLUSIONS: A conceptually, culturally and linguistically equivalent version of the original instrument IDC-Pal was obtained. German family physicians agreed on the usability of IDC-Pal as a tool for rating the case complexity of palliative patients. These results indicate that physicians in Bavaria and eventually in Germany could benefit of the full validation of IDC-Pal.

Strengthening primary health care teams with palliative care leaders: protocol for a cluster randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: The objective of the Balearic Islands Palliative Care (PC) Program is to improve the quality of PC through a shared model consisting of primary health care professionals, home-based PC teams, and PC units in hospitals. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), patients with advanced cancer and other terminal diseases benefit from early identification and proactive PC. We will evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention in which a PC leader is established in the primary health care center, and assess the effect of this intervention on the early identification of patients in need of PC, the efficient use of health care services, and direct health care costs. METHODS: Design: A two-arm cluster randomized clinical trial of 30 Primary Health Care Centers (PHCC) in Mallorca (Spain), in which each center was randomized to an intervention arm or a usual care arm. We expect that the number of patients identified as suitable for PC (including non-oncological PC) is at least 5% greater in the intervention arm. SAMPLE SIZE: A total of 4640 deceased patients. Outcomes will be assessed by a blinded external review of the electronic records. INTERVENTIONS: General practitioners (GPs) and nurse leaders in PC for each PHCC will be appointed. These leaders will help promote PC training of colleagues, improve symptom management and psychological support of patients, and evaluate the complexity of individual cases so that these cases receive assistance from PC home-based teams. MEASUREMENTS: Early identification (>90 days before death), evaluation of case complexity, level of case complexity (with referral to a home-based PC team), use and cost of hospital and primary care services, and quality of life during the last month of life (≥2 emergency room visits, ≥2 hospital admissions, ≥14 days of hospitalization). DISCUSION: PC leaders in primary care teams will improve the early identification of patients eligible for PC. This initiative could improve the quality of end-of-life care and utilization of hospital resources. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN Registry identifier: ISRCTN92479122 . Retrospectively registered on 28 February 2017.