ABSTRACT
Objectives: This study aimed to clarify the present system of palliative care at general hospitals, and to examine the factors contributing to the opioid consumption. Methods: We surveyed the palliative care system using a self-administered questionnaire, which was mailed to 37 general hospitals in Southern and Southwestern wards, Tokyo. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify the associations between explanatory variables and the opioid consumption. Results: Valid responses were obtained from 18 hospitals (response rate: 48.6%). 35% of the general hospitals didn’t have a palliative care team and most hospitals had no specialists. In multivariate analyses, factors associated with the opioid consumption were pharmacists with speciality of pharmaceutical palliative care, physicians joined the palliative care education program based on the Cancer Control Act of Japan, and the number of physicians’ correct answers of questions regarding palliative care. Conclusion: The survey showed that the higher consumption of opioids is significantly associated with the number of health care workers who have knowledge of palliative care. Our study suggested that the arrangement of palliative care experts might decrease the differences in the opioid consumption between general hospitals.