Black and Hispanic patients are more likely to receive care from poorer-quality hospices. And their family caregivers are less likely to receive the right amount of emotional and religious support in hospice care. However, caregivers of black and Hispanic patients report similar or better experiences than caregivers of white patients within a given hospice.
Black and Hispanic patients are more likely to receive care from poorer-quality hospices. And their family caregivers are less likely to receive the right amount of emotional and religious support in hospice care. However, caregivers of black and Hispanic patients report similar or better experiences than caregivers of white patients within a given hospice.
Studies demonstrate the benefits of discussing goals of care and advance care planning, yet many patients with serious illness do not engage in such discussions with healthcare providers.
This evidence review found that palliative care improves outcomes for cancer, dementia, congestive heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Family reports of patients' experiences with pain, difficult breathing, and depression near the end of life suggest strategies at the clinical and population level for assessing and managing symptoms.
Stroke patients' wishes to limit life-sustaining interventions were documented in less than 40 percent of cases in which patients died 30 days after hospital admission.
Many patients considered for transplantation die before receiving the organ, underlining the importance of providing high-quality symptomatic relief and communication for all transplant patients.
This article describes the current status of home-based medical care in the United States and offers a brief narrative of a fictional homebound patient and the health events and fragmented care she faces.
This report describes development of the Hospice Experience of Care Survey, field test design, procedures, analytic methods and findings, and the final survey for national implementation by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
There are times when no amount of care, however cutting-edge it is, will save a patient. In these instances, further critical care is said to be “futile.” This type of treatment is not uncommon in intensive care units, and that raises some uncomfortable questions.
Understanding how patients experience care can encourage delivery of high-quality services. It also helps payers, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, ensure that they pay for effective and efficient care.
Karl Lorenz, a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, discusses how to improve palliative care training for health practitioners and better engage patients in the health care decisionmaking process.
