Outcome of short palliative screening form in PhuKhieoChalermPraKiat Hospital Chaiyaphum Province

Abstract

Palliative care is specialized medical care for patients with life-threatening or incurable illnesses. It emphasizes the prevention and relief of painful symptoms. The goal of palliative care is to alleviate the quality of life of the patient. A large number of patients do not have access to palliative care, resulting in frequent admissions and treatments that do not benefit the diagnosis of the illness such as endotracheal intubation, intensive care, blood transfusion, and using antibiotics. These treatments unnecessarily increase the medical cost and burden of staff.

Objective: To examine the result of screening palliative care patients after using short palliative screening form at PhuKhieoChalermPraKiat Hospital

Method and material: This research is a retrospective study that examines the result of screening palliative care patients after using short palliative screening form at PhuKhieoChalermPraKiat Hospital, Chaiyaphum Province. The data were collected from 1 April - 30 September 2019 to compare with the result of short palliative screening form collected from 1 October 2019 – 31 March 2020. The data were retrieved from diagnostic data in the medical records and personal information, including gender, age, and Palliative Performance Scale.

Results: There were 99 cases using the traditional screening method, including 64 cases of cancer (64.6%) and 35 cases of non-cancer (35.4%). The mean Palliative Performance Scale was 34.7. The most consulted disease was cholangiocarcinoma, accounting for 16 cases (16.2%), followed by 11 cases of sepsis (11.1%), and 10 cases of CKD stage 5 (10.1%).

There were 133 cases using the short palliative screening  form, including 77 cases of cancer (53.4%) and 62 cases of non-cancer (46.6%). The mean Palliative Performance Scale was 46.2. The most consulted disease was sepsis, accounting for 24 cases (18%), followed by 15 cases of liver cancer (11.3%), and 14 cases of CKD stage 5 (10.5%).

Conclusion: The short palliative screening form is a tool that raises awareness of identifying palliative care patients and allows staff to understand the screening criteria better. Therefore, the short screening method can identify more palliative care patients, show a higher rate of non-cancer cases, and facilitate faster consultation.