Journal Club

safety in hospice …

… Casarett and colleagues’ article cautioning against misapplying routine safety measures in the hospice setting. Fundamental differences include goals of care (comfort not cure), longevity (days to months not years) and primary caregivers (family and friends not trained health care personnel). A follow-up article would address safety measures that are appropriate and specific for hospice

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Spiritual Issues in the Care of Dying Patients …

“When I look at a patient, in this case a dying patient, I really look at the primary core spiritual need that they are presenting to me. Is it a quest for meaning to try to determine what their life meant or what their faith means? Or, are they presenting a need for affirmation, support,

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more than policies and procedures …

Curry et. al. demonstrate that an organizational culture of trust and teamwork is the foundation for high performing quality patient care. “ … achieving high performance may require long-term investment and concerted efforts to create an organizational culture that supports full engagement in quality, strong communication and coordination among groups, and the capacity for problem

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prognosis factors marking 6 month survival …

Salpeter et. al. summarize prognostic factors in cancer and non-cancer diagnoses that are consistently associated with a survival of 6 months or less. “Despite different cancer characteristics, a fairly universal picture of terminal disease included decreasing performance status, advancing age, weight loss, metastatic disease, disease recurrence, and laboratory abnormalities indicating extensive disease. Most of the

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