Palliative Care across Settings: Perspectives from Inpatient, Primary Care, and Home Health Care Providers and Staff.
Caroline K Tietbohl, Ashley Dafoe, Sarah R Jordan and 4 others
PMID 36908002WHAT IT FOUND
Home health, primary care, and inpatient providers said each can spot palliative care needs from their own vantage point, but poor communication makes it harder.
They suggested a clinical lead to talk with patients and a home health lead to coordinate.
Key findings
01Providers across inpatient, primary care, and home health settings said each can identify palliative care needs from their own unique perspective.
02They said infrequent communication and lack of shared information make it hard to identify needs and cause hesitation to start palliative care conversations.
03They proposed a clinical lead, likely the primary care clinician, to initiate discussions, and a home health care coordination lead to integrate team information.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Data were collected in one geographic location, and home health clinicians came from only two organizations. Participants were providers and staff, not patients or family caregivers, so patient and caregiver experiences were not captured. The study did not test the proposed coordination model or patient outcomes; it was intended to inform a future pilot. The authors noted that the interviewed perspectives may not be generalizable to a broader population.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the proposed clinical-lead and care-coordination roles as tested care. These were suggestions from provider interviews, and the study did not show that the model improves palliative care delivery or patient outcomes.