Creating a Dedicated Palliative Care Team for ICU Spanish Speaking Patients in Response to COVID-19.
J Pain Symptom Manage
; 65(4): e315-e320, 2023 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2240108
ABSTRACT
CONTEXT The Latinx population faced higher rates of infection and severe illness during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in an increased need for palliative care services. OBJECTIVES:
We describe the creation and impact of a formal palliative care initiative developed for seriously ill, Spanish-speaking patients during the COVID-19 pandemic at a tertiary care academic medical center.METHODS:
Patients were enrolled in the Spanish Palliative Care Initiative during a two-month period starting in April 2020. Selected patients were longitudinally followed by a rotating team of Spanish-speaking palliative care clinicians. Following the intervention, a retrospective chart review was conducted to evaluate the impact of the program.RESULTS:
We enrolled 22 patients. The most frequent palliative care task completed during the initial visit was information giving (77%) and during follow-up visits were goals of care discussion (59%) and coping support (59%). Fifteen patients (68%) had a change in code status and 4 patients (18%) were discharged to hospice.CONCLUSION:
The creation of a focused clinical program targeting a historically marginalized population offered opportunity for early palliative care intervention in clinical care for Spanish-speaking patients. This underscores the need for Spanish-language concordant palliative care to improve serious illness care, and end-of-life care, by providing continuity of care, spiritual care, and ICU team support.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Palliative Care
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
J Pain Symptom Manage
Journal subject:
Neurology
/
Psychophysiology
/
Therapeutics
Year:
2023
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS