Website information on visiting policies at specialist in-patient palliative care settings during COVID-19 pandemic across Central and Eastern Europe: a quantitative and qualitative study
Palliative Medicine in Practice
; 16(4):227-232, 2022.
Article
in English
| EMBASE | ID: covidwho-2316422
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, visiting policies in various healthcare centres across the world have changed. Visiting patients by relatives and friends have been stopped or significantly limited. New conditions and legal constraints for family visits had to be implemented also at in-patient palliative care settings, even though accompanying a dying person is crucial for the quality of the end of life. The study aimed to identify and review the visiting policies at in-patient specialist palliative care settings across Central and Eastern Europe. Patients andMethods:
The study was conducted one year after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak from May to October 2021. Information about visiting policies, published on official websites of the in-patient specialised palliative care settings (stationary hospices and hospital-based palliative care units) from Central and Eastern European countries, were identified and categorised. The websites which lacked information about visiting policy during the COVID-19 pandemic were excluded. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the obtained data was conducted by using content analysis techniques and descriptive analysis. The content from websites was translated into Polish with the usage of the Google Translate machine tool. Result(s) Data from 55 in-patient palliative care settings from 8 countries were collected and analysed (83.6% from Poland, and the other from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine). In 43.6% of the organisations, visits were stopped and 56.4% of settings published information about the special requirements for visiting arrangements. In 32.7% of all examined units upfront approval from a physician or the head of a department for visiting a patient was required, and 29.1% published information about personal protective equipment. 32.7% of organizations recommended telephone contact with the patient, and 12.7% provided video calls. Conclusion(s) Web information regarding visiting patients in in-patient palliative care settings is limited. There is a need to establish detailed requirements for the visits with better access to the website for the visitors, in case of a global disease outbreak.Copyright © Via Medica, ISSN 2545-0425, e-ISSN 2545-1359.
COVID-19 pandemic; palliative care; palliative care unit; stationary hospice; visiting policies; adult; article; Bulgaria; content analysis; coronavirus disease 2019; Czech Republic; Eastern Europe; Estonia; female; hospice; hospital patient; human; Lithuania; major clinical study; male; organization; palliative therapy; pandemic; physician; Poland; protective equipment; qualitative research; quantitative analysis; Romania; Slovakia; telephone; Ukraine; videorecording
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
EMBASE
Type of study:
Qualitative research
Language:
English
Journal:
Palliative Medicine in Practice
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Similar
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS