Authors: I Mancini D Lossignol M Obiols R Llop C Toth J Body
Publish Date: 2014/02/23
Volume: 10, Issue: 1, Pages: 3-7
Abstract
The Supportive and Palliative Care Unit of the Institut Jules Bordet officially started its activities in February 1999 Our Unit comprises eight beds four rooms with one bed each and two rooms with two beds each We admit advanced cancer patients presenting with severe symptoms whose control is going to require all the expertise of a multidisciplinary team Whilst these eight beds are identified geographically in the hospital the teams mobility assures continuity of care for patients who wish to stay in another department The infrastructure of the Unit and its rooms allow close family members who wish to sleep close to the patients to do so Otherwise visits are allowed round the clock though always with due consideration for patients comfort Patients are referred either by a physician working in our Institution medical oncologist surgeon or radiotherapist or by their family physicians Less frequently patients themselves specifically ask to be admitted to our Unit The activity of the Unit itself during its first year of functioning can be summarized as follows We admitted 155 advanced cancer patients for a total number of 210 hospitalizations Patients were admitted a median of 35 months after their diagnosis and a median of 20 days before death Stays were generally short median 11 days We systematically used quantitative assessment tools MMSQ MDASEFAT and various VAS to detect and monitor their symptoms and any complications The main symptoms on admission were pain anorexia asthenia dyspnea and anxiety/depression Pain nausea/vomiting constipation and cough were controlled in almost all patients whereas control of asthenia and anorexia was most often insufficient In 51 of our cases the patients could be discharged home 40 died in the unit 4 were transferred to longterm palliative care units and 1 to other units within our Institution 4 were still hospitalized at the time of this analysis
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