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Palliative care for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: exploring the landscape
Author(s) -
Philip J.,
Lowe A.,
Gold M.,
Brand C.,
Miller B.,
Douglass J.,
Sundararajan V.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
internal medicine journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 1444-0903
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-5994.2012.02830.x
Subject(s) - medicine , psychosocial , pulmonary disease , palliative care , epidemiology , disease , intensive care medicine , place of death , emergency medicine , nursing , psychiatry
Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease experience a substantial symptom burden, high levels of psychosocial need and significant mortality. This epidemiological study reveals that the majority of patients are cared for in the public hospital system (64%) and generally die in hospital (72%) with a number of identifiable predictors of 6‐month mortality. Our results suggest that palliative care services need to be redirected from a community‐based admission focus to a model that is responsive to emergency and acute care hospital systems.