Guest Blog - How Do You Handle End of Life Care?
This is a guest blog by Anthony Cirillo, FACHE, ABC:
A new study suggests that physicians are fairly ignorant about how to act toward patients when they run out of treatment options. According to Anthony Back, lead author and professor of medicine at the University of Washington, once doctors refer a patient to hospice care, they end all contact, leaving patients and their families feeling abandoned. The study is published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Back and his co-authors interviewed 31 doctors and 55 of their patients, all of whom had incurable cancer or advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and were expected to die within a year. The researchers also interviewed 36 family caregivers and 25 nurses. Interviews took place at the year-long study's beginning, middle and end.
Participants kept raising the issue of abandonment even though the study was not designed to answer that question.
"I think it's important that you still have that contact with them even though there isn't anything they can do to make you better," one patient told the researchers. "But they can hold my hand, so to speak, to the very end." Family caregivers usually feel as close to the doctor as the patient.
Sean Morrison, a palliative care doctor at New York's Mount Sinai Medical Center, says doctors might not always realize it but "they need to have closure ... just as much as patients and families do."
While this study had to do with physicians, how do you handle end of life situations at your facility? Often, the end of life comes at a hospital so there is no closure. Paying attention to the end, communicating empathy and understanding and even keeping in touch with family afterwards is not just the right thing to do. It helps staff and builds relationships with the community. They will tell others and your facility will stand out for the way you handle the resident and family experience.
Anthony Cirillo is a healthcare consultant, ombudsman and expert blogger for Wellsphere in the area of aging and senior health. He consults with long-term care facilities and is available for management retreats and association keynotes. He is the author of "Who Moved My Dentures?" a book that dispels myths about long-term care. To read more, go to www.4wardfast.com and www.anthonyssong.com.