Evaluation of patients receiving treatment at palliative care centers

Abstract

Introduction : Palliative care centers (PC centers) provide multidisciplinary care for patients with multiple comorbid conditions. This study aimed to assess and compare patients’ diagnoses, length of hospital stays, and demographic data and coordination with home health care services. Methods : This is a descriptive, cross-sectional and retrospective study. Patients who were hospitalized in PC centers of secondary and tertiary care hospitals between 01.08.2018 and 01.08.2018 were retrospectively assessed. Patients’ demographic characteristics diagnoses of hospitalization, and length of hospital stays and centers where they received treatment were recorded.  Results : Median age of 830 patients included in the study was 79 (24-102). Out of 830 patients, 48.9% were male and 51.1% were female. Mean length of hospital stay was 14 days and median length was 8.7 (0.6-112) days. The three most common comorbid diseases followed up were malignancy (21.8%), cerebrovascular disease (15.2%) and malaise-fatigue-senility (10.7%). The group with Alzheimer's disease was the oldest patient group. The group with nutritional deficiency-malnutrition was the patient group with the longest hospital stay (p=0.030). The number of patients who were hospitalized for cerebrovascular diseases was the highest in secondary care centers and the number of patients who were hospitalized for malignancy was the highest in tertiary care centers. Patients hospitalized in secondary PC center were older. The hospital stays were longer in tertiary PC center. Patients receiving treatment at a tertiary PC center had a significantly higher rate of mortality. The number of patients who were discharged was lower in the tertiary PC centers. Hospitalization to a secondary PC center through home care units was significantly higher.  Conclusion : In this study, the rate and diagnoses of hospitalization and length of hospital stays were different in secondary and tertiary PC centers. Our study has made an assessment about palliative care centers at various levels of health care and can be considered as prior knowledge for other studies.