Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Jun 2016
Discovering the hidden benefits of cognitive interviewing in two languages: The first phase of a validation study of the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale.
The Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale is a newly developed advancement of the Palliative care Outcome Scale. It assesses patient-reported symptoms and other concerns. Cognitive interviewing is recommended for questionnaire refinement but not adopted widely in palliative care research. ⋯ Cognitive interviewing proved valuable to increase face and content validity of the questionnaire. The concurrent approach in two languages - to our knowledge the first such approach in palliative care - benefited the refinement. Psychometric validation of the refined Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale is now underway.
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Palliative medicine · Jun 2016
Hospice assist at home: does the integration of hospice care in primary healthcare support patients to die in their preferred location - A retrospective cross-sectional evaluation study.
A majority of patients prefer to die at home. Specialist palliative care aims to improve quality of life. Hospice assist at home is a Dutch model of general/specialised palliative care within primary care, collaboratively built by general practitioners and a hospice. ⋯ Hospice assist at home service supports patients to die in their preferred place of death. Shared responsibility of proactive care in primary care collaboration enabled patients to express preferences. Hospice care should focus on local teamwork, to contribute to shared responsibilities in providing optimal palliative care.
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Palliative medicine · Jun 2016
Measuring healthcare integration: Operationalization of a framework for a systems evaluation of palliative care structures, processes, and outcomes.
Healthcare integration is a priority in many countries, yet there remains little direction on how to systematically evaluate this construct to inform further development. The examination of community-based palliative care networks provides an ideal opportunity for the advancement of integration measures, in consideration of how fundamental provider cohesion is to effective care at end of life. ⋯ This study, along with the other evaluative examples mentioned, represents important initial attempts at empirically and comprehensively examining network-integrated palliative care and healthcare integration in general.