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Current State of Pain Care for Hospitalized Patients at End of Life
Authors: Yao, Y., Keenan, G., Al-Masalha, F., Lopez, K., Khokar, A., Johnson, A., Ansari, R., Wilkie, D.
Publication: The American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care, vol 30, no 2, pp. 128–136 URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1177%2F1049909112444458 We report findings on the current state of pain care in hospitals for end-of-life (EOL) patients using longitudinal data from eight diverse medical-surgical units located in 4 different Midwestern hospitals over 24 months. We identified 1,425 EOL care episodes, 596 (41.3%) of which had a pain diagnosis. The percentage of EOL patients with pain varied significantly across units (p<.001), and was even lower (27.7%) for those with “acute confusion.” Additionally, 30% of EOL patients had severe or significant pain at death or discharge to hospice and only 42.7% actually met the expected pain related outcome ratings. Pain often improved within 48 hours of admission (p<.005), the improvement, however, stagnated following this initial time period (p=.92). A sizable gap between pain science and clinical practice continues. Date: May 1, 2012 Document: View PDF |
