Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2016
Multicenter Study Comparative StudyAre Hospice Admission Practices Associated with Hospice Enrollment for Older African Americans and Whites?
Hospices that enroll patients receiving expensive palliative therapies may serve more African Americans because of their greater preferences for aggressive end-of-life care. ⋯ Hospices with larger budgets served a greater proportion of African Americans and whites in their service area. Although larger hospices reported less restrictive admission practices, they also may have provided other services that may be important to patients regardless of race, such as more in-home support or assistance with nonmedical expenses, and participated in more outreach activities increasing their visibility and referral base. Future research should explore factors that influence decisions about hospice enrollment among racially diverse older adults.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2016
Multicenter StudyCancer Care Professionals' Attitudes Toward Systematic Standardized Symptom Assessment and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) Following Large-Scale Population-Based Implementation in Ontario, Canada.
Cancer patients experience a high symptom burden throughout their illness. Despite this, patients' symptoms and needs are often not adequately screened for, assessed, and managed. ⋯ Findings show significant albeit variable uptake across disciplines in the use of the ESAS since program initiation. Several barriers to using the ESAS in daily practice were identified. These need to be addressed.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2016
Multicenter StudyAdherence to Measuring What Matters Measures Using Point-of-Care Data Collection Across Diverse Clinical Settings.
Measuring What Matters (MWM) for palliative care has prioritized data collection efforts for evaluating quality in clinical practice. How these measures can be implemented across diverse clinical settings using point-of-care data collection on quality is unknown. ⋯ Variations in clinician documentation of adherence to MWM quality measures are seen across clinical settings. Additional studies are needed to better understand benchmarks and acceptable ranges for adherence tailored to various clinical settings.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2016
Multicenter Study Comparative StudySymptom Clusters from Dialysis to Renal Transplantation: A Five-Year Longitudinal Study.
Patients on dialysis experience multiple concurrent and often related symptoms defined as symptom clusters. Renal transplantation (RTX) is thought to reduce symptom experience and improve health-related quality of life. No longitudinal study has assessed symptoms and symptom clusters in patients in the transition from dialysis to RTX. ⋯ Although symptoms and symptom clusters were reduced after RTX, the clinical relevance of the reductions was ambiguous. Symptom clusters could not be generated after RTX, suggesting that use of the KDQOL-SF may not be optimal to assess symptoms in RTX patients.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2016
Multicenter StudySpanish Validation of the Care Evaluation Scale for Measuring the Quality of Structure and Process of Palliative Care from the Family Perspective.
A reliable and valid measure of the structure and process of end-of-life care is important for improving the outcomes of care. ⋯ The Spanish CES was found to be a reliable and valid measure of the satisfaction with end-of-life care structure and process from family members' perspectives.