The Impact of Hospice Care Structures on Care Processes: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
Everlien de Graaf, Matthew Grant, Frederieke van der Baan and 3 others
PMID 38234063WHAT IT FOUND
Hospices with palliative reasoning documentation or structured multidisciplinary meetings had more documented care processes for end-of-life patients, especially in the first 72 hours.
This reflects documentation, not proof of better patient outcomes.
Key findings
01Hospices using palliative reasoning documentation had more documented care processes in the first 72 hours.
02Hospices meeting multidisciplinary meeting guidance had more documented care processes in the first and last 72 hours.
03The increase was reported across physical, psychological, social and spiritual domains of documented care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was a retrospective observational study, so it cannot show that the care structures caused the documented care processes. The outcome was the number and type of documented care processes, not patient outcomes such as symptom control, quality of life, or family experience. More documented care processes may reflect better documentation rather than more or better care. Some selected patient records were incomplete and excluded. Hospice structures were reported by managers, and other important influences on care were not measured.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read more documented care processes as proof that patients had better outcomes or that the structures caused better care. The study counted documented processes and could not link them to patient outcomes.