 |
PROFESSIONAL ISSUESStudy calls for more and better hospital palliative careInterest in such centers continues to grow, but at least one expert believes it may not be growing fast enough.By Andis Robeznieks, AMNews staff. Dec. 3, 2001. More U.S. hospitals are providing palliative care programs, but the number and the quality of these programs have to improve, says Cynthia X. Pan, MD, and her colleagues at the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. "In the United States, the majority of deaths occur in the hospital, but the dying process there is at best unsatisfactory and more likely inadequate for both patients and caregivers," Dr. Pan states in a report on hospital-based palliative care programs published in early November in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. In 1998, the American Hospital Assn. began including questions on palliative care in its annual survey. Dr. Pan and her research team studied the results of these questions and then sent out their own questionnaire to the 2,015 institutions that reported having programs for palliative care or pain management. According to Dr. Pan's report, 719 (15%) of the hospitals surveyed reported having some sort of end-of-life care services in 1998, and 1,751 (36%) offered pain management services. By 1999, these numbers grew to 961 (20%) for palliative care and 2,030 (41%) for pain management. "It's a rapidly evolving field," Dr. Pan said. "As we were surveying, new programs were starting all the time. People asked, 'Can we turn in the survey later, we're planning on opening a center next month?' " According to the study, the most palliative care programs were located in Midwestern states (115 or 34%), followed by the South (92, 27%), the Northeast (80, 24%), and the West (50, 15%). Outside of the Midwest, Dr. Pan said cities where palliative care programs were readily available included New York, Boston, San Diego and San Francisco. [...] Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2001 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
|
|
Feature articlesRunning out of patches Options for fixing the Medicare pay crisis Illness interrupts book excerpt: Life in the Balance Taking it to the bank A new strategy for health plans Allergic reaction Food allergies increasing, especially among children Comprehensive coverage
Most-viewedJan. 5 issuePressure builds for further slashes to Medicare Advantage spending Medical centers reveal doctors' industry pay Columns and series
From the vault: 5 years agoAMA vows united voice in battle for tort reform Jan. 5, 2004 |
