The role of palliative care in acute care setting

Overview

While terminal palliative care focuses primarily on the management of symptoms of immediate dying, early palliative care provides an opportunity for the patient and his loved ones to understand the trajectory of the illness, to receive support for coping with the diagnosis, increase the quality of decision-making to match the patient’s values and preferences. The emphasis is on realistic expectations of the outcome of treatment and timely anticipation of further disease course. The paper focuses on an overview of the evidence of palliative and supportive interventions, comparing the different trigger mechanisms for palliative intervention and presents the content of the intervention of the palliative team. The establishment and integration of the consultative palliative team in the tertiary hospital is described. An illustrative care report describes the goals of care conversation and its impact on advance care planning. Palliative care is widely accepted and recommended standard of high quality care for seriously ill patients. In the Czech Republic, it is necessary to extend its availability for patients hospitalized in acute care setting.

Keywords:

goals of care – palliative care – patient preferences – symptoms – treatment limitations