The care of children in the U.S. with life-limiting illnesses is inadequate. Misallocated resources, flawed assumptions and models of care, and a lack of appropriate professional education foster a costly, inefficient system that falls short of its…
BACKGROUND: The intensive care unit (ICU) represents a unique clinical setting in which mortality is relatively high and the professional culture tends to be one of "rescue therapy" using technological and invasive interventions. For these reasons,…
OBJECTIVE: Describe patterns of palliative care service consultation among a sample of ICU patients at high risk of dying. BACKGROUND: Patients receiving mechanical ventilation (MV) face threats to comfort, social connectedness and dignity due to…
BACKGROUND: Proximal femur fracture (PFF) is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. The European Quality of Care Pathway (EQCP) study on PFF (NCT00962910) was designed to determine how care pathways (CP) for hospital treatment of PFF…
This is the second in a series of articles from a line of research whose intent was to construct a complete history of interactions with the health care system. This paper provides details of the methods developed to collect and collate the scattered…
OBJECTIVE: To determine the impact of an innovative professional educational approach on clinicians' confidence and ability to make institutional improvements in pediatric palliative care. DESIGN: Evaluation to assess impact of educational…
Despite the universality of dying, research has not focused on developing conceptual models and measurement tools for examining the quality of care and quality of life of dying patients and their loved ones. We present here a vision and research…
Palliative care services are increasingly available to primary care physicians for both expert consultations and services to seriously ill patients. The United States now has more than 1400 hospital-based palliative care teams and more than 4700…
Ensuring a safe and effective transition of young people with chronic illness and disability from paediatric care to adult health services is a key quality issue for the NHS. To achieve this, three elements must be pursued with vigour. Firstly, a…
Cancer is the leading cause of nonaccidental death in childhood.1 There has, however, been little evaluation of the overall experience at the end of life of children who are dying of cancer or of their symptoms other than pain.2,3 A number of studies…
Objective: To identify which quality indicators (QI) predict patient satisfaction.
Methods: A cross-sectional design using a validated tool was administered using a Web-based platform. Parents (n = 405) who experienced a life-limiting fetal…
BACKGROUND:: About one quarter of children affected with cancer die. For children and their families, the end-of-life period is highly distressing. AIM:: This study focused on how end-of-life care in pediatric cancer patients changed over a period of…
Abstract Pediatric palliative home care (PPHC) provides care for children, adolescents, and young adults with life-limiting illnesses in their own homes. Home care often requires long travel times for the PPHC team, which is available to the families…
