Journal of pain & palliative care pharmacotherapy
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2005
Assessing the value of hospice care: is documentation of cost savings necessary.
Hospice care is one end-of-life option that since its inception has been the subject of numerous cost comparisons. Early hospice care emerged as a social movement in the United Kingdom. This movement began outside the medical services establishment and sought to improve care for the terminally ill through palliative and supportive services, provided in the patient's own home (1). ⋯ The results of the National Hospice study, which documented medical cost savings during the last six months of life for hospice patients as compared to conventional care patients, was seen as the impetus for Medicare reimbursement for hospice services (2,3). Against this backdrop, the Medicare Hospice Benefit was enacted in 1982 with the goal of providing humane, compassionate and cost-effective care for Medicare beneficiaries with incurable advanced disease. Ever increasing concerns about rising health care costs and the economics of dying have fueled numerous studies trying to quantify the cost savings at the end of life that may result from hospice versus conventional care.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2005
Physician perspectives on a pilot prescription monitoring program.
In 2003, during implementation of a pilot electronic prescription monitoring program in southwest Virginia, a survey was mailed to 672 physicians to learn about their knowledge of and attitudes toward the program and its impact on their opioid prescribing behaviors. A total of 275 surveys were returned yielding a response rate of 41%. ⋯ Sixty-eight percent reported that the prescription monitoring program was useful for monitoring patients' prescription histories and decreasing doctor shopping; however, only 11% had requested information from the prescription monitoring program database, primarily due to access barriers. Recommendations include education to increase physician awareness of and utilization of the program and to address their concerns about scrutiny of practice and collection of relevant data that examines the impact of the program on diversion, abuse, and quality of patient care for persons in pain.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2005
Evidence-based pain management and palliative care in issue three for 2004 of The Cochrane Library.
The Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews is published quarterly. Issue three for 2004 of the library was published in July 2004. The Cochrane Library now contains 3559 complete reviews and protocols of reviews. ⋯ This edition of the Library contains the results of an extensive search for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on EMBASE. The latest library contains 75 new reviews, five of which are considered relevant to practitioners in pain and palliative care. References are published in the same format as the citation for Cochrane reviews.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2005
The International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care Website.
The Website of the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care is reviewed. The Association newsletter, resources, links, access to the IAHPC Manual of Palliative Care 2nd Edition, frequently asked questions, and other useful information are provided on this site.
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J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother · Jan 2005
The National Institutes of Health pain consortium: index of pain-related information available from the NIH.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been mandated to provide a focus on pain and its management by the charters of several institutes and centers and by various pieces of federal legislation. This report describes the NIH pain consortium and the index of pain-related information available from the NIH.