Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2014
Multicenter StudyFamily perceptions of quality of hospice care in the nursing home.
Nursing homes (NHs) are increasingly the site of hospice care. High quality of care is dependent on successful NH-hospice collaboration. ⋯ The important concerns raised by bereaved family members about NH-hospice collaboration have been incorporated into the revised Family Evaluation of Hospice Care, a post-death survey used to evaluate quality of hospice care.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2014
Multicenter StudyQuality of life in patients with advanced cancer at the end of life as measured by the McGill quality of life questionnaire: a survey in China.
Quality of life (QOL) is the main outcome measure for patients with advanced cancer at the end of life. The McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL) is designed specifically for palliative care patients and has been translated and validated in Hong Kong and Taiwan. ⋯ Our results revealed the aspects of QOL that need more attention for Chinese palliative care patients with advanced cancer. The association between the characteristics of patients, Karnofsky Performance Status, and their QOL also was identified.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2014
Multicenter StudyLongitudinal temporal and probabilistic prediction of survival in a cohort of patients with advanced cancer.
Survival prognostication is important during the end of life. The accuracy of clinician prediction of survival (CPS) over time has not been well characterized. ⋯ Probabilistic CPS was consistently more accurate than temporal CPS over the last 14 days of life; however, its accuracy decreased as patients approached death. Our findings suggest that better tools to predict impending death are necessary.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2014
Multicenter StudyDoes the working environment influence health care professionals' values, meaning in life and religiousness? Palliative care units compared with maternity wards.
Increased altruism, self-transcendence, and quests for meaning in life (MiL) have been found in palliative care (PC) patients and their families who experience the finiteness of life. Similar changes were observed in healthy subjects who were experimentally confronted with their mortality. ⋯ Basic differences in values, MiL, and religiousness between PC-HCPs and MW-HCPs might have influenced the choice of working environment because no effect of job duration was observed. Longitudinal research is needed to confirm this hypothesis.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2014
Multicenter StudyHospices' use of electronic medical records for quality assessment and performance improvement programs.
Electronic medical records (EMRs) are increasingly viewed as essential tools for quality assurance and improvement in many care settings, but little is known about the use of EMRs by hospices in their quality assessment and performance improvement (QAPI) programs. ⋯ Most participating hospices use EMRs for retrieving items needed for QI calculations. EMR-based QIs address various quality domains and themes. Our findings present opportunities for potential future reporting of EMR-based quality data.