Clinical findings and recommendations made during home visits by a palliative care specialist physician.
Palliat Med
; 23(7): 635-41, 2009 Oct.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-19581338
ABSTRACT
Little has been reported regarding the nature of home visits by palliative care specialist physicians to assist in the management of complex cases. We determined the characteristics, actionable clinical findings and recommendations made during consecutive home visits conducted by a specialist physician for patients registered with a community palliative care service. Patient demographic information and clinical records were reviewed. Ninety-one patients received a total of 104 home and residential facility visits. Median patient age was 59 (Q1-Q3, 43-72). Ten children (under the age of 14) received a total of 15 visits. Seventy-three patients (80%) had a cancer diagnosis. Median visit duration was 60 min (Q1-Q3, 45-60). The major actionable clinical findings were pain (120), gastrointestinal (115), neuropsychiatric (58), mouth and skin (33) and respiratory (29). One-third of recommendations involved changes in analgesia regimen (opioids 67, adjuvants 44). The specialist physician home visit resulted in multiple patient care recommendations. This information may help palliative care programmes improve their care for patients and families in the community.
Texto completo:
1
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Cuidados Paliativos
/
Servicios de Atención de Salud a Domicilio
/
Visita Domiciliaria
Tipo de estudio:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Guideline
/
Observational_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
Límite:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Aged
/
Child
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Child, preschool
/
Female
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Humans
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Infant
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Male
/
Middle aged
País/Región como asunto:
Oceania
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Palliat Med
Asunto de la revista:
SERVICOS DE SAUDE
Año:
2009
Tipo del documento:
Article