International recommendations for outpatient palliative care and prehospital palliative emergencies – a prospective questionnaire-based investigation

BMC Palliative Care

Research Article

Utz E Bartels¹  Gerd G Hanekop²  Bernhard M Graf³  Mahmoud Taghavi³  Christoph HR Wiese³  Saleem Elhabash³  Christoph L Lassen³ 

[1] Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Centre Ulm, Ulm, Germany;Department of Anaesthesiology, Emergency and Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Centre Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany;Department of Anaesthesiology, University Medical Centre Regensburg, Franz-Josef-Strauß-Allee 11, 93053, Regensburg, Germany;

关键词: Specialised palliative care services (SPCS);    Emergency medical care;    Palliative care;    Palliative emergency;    End-of-life care;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1472-684X-12-10

 received in 2012-04-25, accepted in 2013-02-19,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundTo determine the international recommendations and current practices for the treatment and prevention of palliative emergencies. The primary goal of the study was to gather information from experts on their nationally practised concepts.MethodsOne hundred and fifty self-report surveys were distributed by email to selected leading experts (palliative and emergency medical care) in Europe, North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. An expert in this context was defined as an author of an article that was ranked by three reviewers as relevant to outpatient palliative and emergency medical .ResultsThe total response rate was 61% (n = 92 experts). Survey responses were obtained from 35 different countries. The following standards in the treatment of palliative emergencies were recommended: (1) early integration of “Palliative Care Teams” (PCTs) and basic outpatient palliative care systems, (2) end-of-life discussions, (3) defined emergency medical documents, drug boxes, and “Do not attempt resuscitation” orders and (4) emergency medical training (physicians and paramedics).ConclusionsThis study detected structurally and nationally differences in outpatient palliative care regarding the treatment of palliative emergencies. Accordingly, these differences should be discussed and adapted to the respective specifications of individual single countries. A single established outpatient palliative emergency medical care concept may be the basis for an overall out-of-hospital palliative care system.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Wiese et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013