• 제목/요약/키워드: Hospital Service Quality

검색결과 903건 처리시간 0.025초

병동형 호스피스 대상자를 위한 전인적 호스피스 간호중재 프로그램의 개발 (Development of Wholistic Hospice Nursing Intervention Program for In-patient of Hospice Palliative Care Unit)

  • 강은실;최성은;강성년
    • 호스피스학술지
    • /
    • 제7권1호
    • /
    • pp.29-45
    • /
    • 2007
  • People in the end of life and their families suffer in their physical disease and other aspects as a whole person. They need hospice care to palliate their total suffering in physical, emotional, social and also spiritual aspect through professional hospice team. To care their whole personal needs, hospice team must be a multi-discipline team which consists of medical doctors, nurses, social workers, pastors and volunteers. Recently those who die in hospice palliative care unit have trend to increase more than in home year by year. So it is necessary to develop the nursing intervention program to be performed by multi-discipline team approach for in-patient of hospice palliative care unit. The purposes of this study were to develop of wholistic hospice nursing intervention program for inpatient of hospice palliative care unit. The subjects of study were collected from 30 patients those who were over 18 years old and admitted in hospice palliative care unit of S hospital in P city with agreement in hospice palliative care in their terminal disease. The period of data collection was from December 15, 2003 to March 15, 2004. The result were as follows : 1. The result of Wholistic Hospice Nursing Program's development was as follow : A Wholistic Hospice Nursing Program was developed by me in this study is one of the service program for hospice palliative care unit. It was named as ‘Rainbow Program’ to be approached easily by hospice patients. The purposes of it are to improve the quality of life of the terminal patients with their dignity, to help them live in abundant and meaningful in their lives, to care them in peaceful in dying process with understanding them in whole personal, and also to palliate the grief and suffering of the bereaved. It was provided by hospice professionals(nurses, medical doctors, social worker, pastors, art therapists) and volunteers those who were educated in hospice for multi-diciplinary team approach to collaborate with each role play I 20-30 minuters of each through visiting their rooms individually and a place of hospice palliative care unit of S hospital in P city. The subjects of it were the terminal patients those who admitted hospice palliative care unit and their familes. with agreement in hospice palliative care in their terminal disease. The characteristics of it were multi-disciplinary team approach, whole personal care, individual care and total care according to their needs in their condition. The contents of it were pain control, symptom control, counseling patient, counseling family, hair cutting, hair shampooing, bed bath, recreation, taking a walk, event of culture(screen, recital, festival of praises, exhibition and so on), pastoral counseling, ritual service in bed, praying, service in bed, sing a worship praise, listening to the music, sharing remembrance of life, individual visiting music service(sing and praying), meditation Bible, art therapies(dance and drawing), social worker's counselling, confessing and sharing love and thanksgiving. The experimental group subjects participated in Wholistic Hospice Nursing Program which takes 120 minutes per session, total 10 sessions(total 1,200 minutes) altogether. In conclusion, this Wholistic Hospice Nursing Intervention can be used actively for whole personal well-being of the patients in hospice palliative in hospice palliative care unit and also applied in hospice practice as an useful model of multi-disciplinary team approach by hospice professionals.

  • PDF

네트워크병원과 의료기관 복수 개설·운영 금지 제도에 관한 고찰 (A Study on Network Hospital and the Ban on Opening and Operating the Muliple Medical Institution)

  • 김준래
    • 의료법학
    • /
    • 제17권2호
    • /
    • pp.281-313
    • /
    • 2016
  • 우리 헌법은, 국가로 하여금 국민의 건강을 보호할 의무를 지우고 있고, 그 구체화된 규범인 의료법은 의료기관 개설 등에 관한 사항을 상세히 규정하고 있는데, 그 내용 중 하나가 의료인의 의료기관 복수개설 운영 금지 제도이다. 이에 대하여, 종래의 판례는 '다른 의사 명의로 추가 개설하는 의료기관에서 직접 의료행위 등을 하지 않는다면 여러 개의 의료기관을 개설 운영할 수 있다'고 해석함으로써, 사실상 복수의 의료기관을 개설 운영할 수 있었다. 하지만 일부 의료인들이 다른 의사의 면허로 의료기관을 여러 장소에 개설하고 이익을 극대화하기 위하여, 환자유인행위를 하거나 과잉진료 및 위임치료를 하는 등의 불법의료행위를 조장할 뿐만 아니라 국민의 건강권 등을 침해하는 현실적 문제가 발생하게 되었다. 이에 입법자는 의료법의 개정을 통해 의료인은 어떠한 명목으로도 둘 이상의 의료기관을 개설하거나 운영할 수 없도록 의료기관 개설제도를 정비하게 된 것이다. 이에 따라 개정 의료법 하에서 1인의 의료인이 더 이상 복수의 의료기관을 개설 내지 운영할 수 없게 되자, 일부 의료인들은 새로이 개정된 규정 하에서는 네트워크병원의 장점을 살릴 수 없다며, 개정 의료법의 규정이 위헌이라고 주장하고 있다. 그러나 사무소의 복수개설을 금지하는 규정은 의료인에게만 특별한 제한을 두고 있는 것이 아니며, 변호사, 약사 등 수많은 다른 전문자격사들에 대해서도 하나의 사무소만을 개설하도록 규정하고 있으며, 이는 자신이 직접 그 본연의 업무를 수행하기 위하여 필요한 장소적 범위 내에서만 사무소를 책임지고 개설 운영토록 하기 위함이다. 또한 동 규정이 위헌적 소지가 있어 폐지된다면, 어렵사리 의료법인 또는 비영리법인을 설립하여 여러 개의 의료기관을 개설 운영하는 절차를 따를 이유도 없게 된다. 나아가 무엇보다 중요한 것은 의료인의 복수 의료기관 개설을 허용할 경우 사실상 영리병원을 허용하는 결과를 초래하게 된다는 점을 유념해야 한다. 요컨대 공공의료가 차지하는 비율이 절대적으로 적은 우리나라의 보건 의료 현실에서 일부 소수의 자본력 있는 의료인이 수많은 의료기관들을 독점하여 소유하고 사실상 영리병원으로 운영한다면, 이는 의료서비스의 질 저하를 초래하고, 궁극적으로 국민의 건강권 내지 생명권을 침해할 수 있다는 점을 깊이 고려해야 한다.

  • PDF

흉요추 압박 골절의 한의학적 치료에 대한 국내 임상 근거 : 체계적 문헌 고찰 (Korean Medicine for Thoracolumbar Compression Fracture in Korean Literature : a Systematic Review)

  • 배지민;김대훈;김재규;이병렬;양기영;김건형
    • Journal of Acupuncture Research
    • /
    • 제32권4호
    • /
    • pp.147-156
    • /
    • 2015
  • Objectives : This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of Korean medicine for a thoracolumbar compression fracture. Methods : We searched six Korean databases (DBPIA, Korean Studies Information Service System, Oriental Medicine Advanced Searching Integrated System, National Digital Science Library, Research Information Sharing Service, KoreaMed) (up to June 2015) and the Journal of Korean Acupuncture and Moxibustion Society. Unpublished studies were also searched. Clinical research, other than case reports involving less than 10 patients, were eligible. The effectiveness and safety of Korean Medicine was analyzed. The 'Risk of Bias' was assessed using the 'Risk of Bias' assessment tool for non-randomized studies as well as the Cochrane Collaboration's 'Risk of Bias' tool. Results : We found 12 before-after studies (374 patients). There was no randomized trial. All studies combined at least three different types of Korean medicine treatments. The period of treatment varied between less a week and 154 days. All the included studies reported improvements in pain, functional disability related to lower back pain, global assessment, and benefits in the compression ratio of a fractured vertebrae and skin temperature measured by digital infrared thermal imaging in comparison with the baseline. However, all studies had a high risk of bias and three studies reported mild adverse events. Conclusions : There is no randomized trial for the role of Korean medicine for patients with a thoracolumbar compression fracture. The effectiveness and safety of Korean medicine for this population remains unclear. Findings in this review are seriously biased due to observational design and a high risk of bias included in the studies. Future high-quality randomized trials are warranted.

The Efficacy of Aspirin in Preventing the Recurrence of Colorectal Adenoma: a Renewed Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials

  • Zhao, Tai-Yun;Tu, Jing;Wang, Yin;Cheng, Da-Wei;Gao, Xian-Kui;Luo, Hao;Yan, Bi-Chun;Xu, Xiao-Li;Zhang, Hong-Ling;Lu, Xing-Jun;Wang, Yao-Jun
    • Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
    • /
    • 제17권5호
    • /
    • pp.2711-2717
    • /
    • 2016
  • Background: Through search the possible randomized control trials, we make a renewed meta-analysis in order to assess the impact of aspirin in preventing the recurrence of colorectal adenoma. Materials and Methods: The Medicine/PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Chinese biomedical literature service system (SinoMed) databases were searched for the related randomized controlled trials until to the April 2016. Three different authors respectively evaluated the quality of studies and extracted data, and we used the STATA software to analyze, investigate heterogeneity between the data, using the fixed-effects model to calculate and merge data. Results: 7 papers were included the renewed meta-analysis, among these studies, two pairs were identified as representing the same study population, with the only difference being the duration of follow-up. Thus there were only five papers included our meta-analysis, and one Chinese paper were also included the work. Results were categorized by the length of follow-up, different kinds of people, varied dose of oral aspirin. The relative of adenoma in patients taking aspirin vs placebo were 0.73 (95% CI 0.55-0.98, P=0.039) with 1 year follow up; 0.84 (95% CI 0.72-0.98, P=0.484) with greater than 1 year follow up; for the advanced adenoma, the RR 0.68 (95% CI 0.49-0.94, P=0.582),for one year; RR=0.75 (95% CI 0.52-1.07, P=0.552) for greater one year. Furthermore the white population could divided into two subgroups according to the different length of follow-up time. When the length of follow-up time less than 3-year, The RR of two subgroups respective were RR=0.86 (95% CI 0.76-0.98, P=0.332), $I^2=0%$, RR=0.68 (95% CI 0.47-0.98, P=0.552), $I^2=64.6%$, But with the extension of follow-up time greater than 2-year, with the white, oral aspirin without considering dose had no efficacy on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma, the RR was 0.86 (95% CI 0.71-1.05, P=0.302), $I^2=16.4%$. Conclusions: This meta-analysis indicated that oral aspirin is associated with a remarkable decrease in the recurrence of any adenoma and advanced adenomas in patients follow-up for 1 year without concerning the dose of aspirin, but with the extension of follow-up time for greater than 1 year, oral aspirin can be effective on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma, but for the advanced adenoma, the result indicated that oral aspirin had no efficacy, According to the inclusion of ethnic groups, we also divided relevant papers into two subgroups as the yellow and white group. Then the follow-up time was less than 3 years, oral aspirin without considering the dose, had an significant efficacy on preventing the recurrence of any adenoma. But with the follow-up greater than 2 years, oral aspirin had no effect in the white.

지역 주민의 공공병원에 대한 부정적 인식에 영향을 미치는 요인 (Factors Affecting the Negative Perception of Public Hospitals among Local Residents)

  • 최은혜;조정희;엽경은;박보희;김소영;박종혁
    • 보건행정학회지
    • /
    • 제34권2호
    • /
    • pp.211-221
    • /
    • 2024
  • 연구배경: 코로나바이러스감염증-19로 인한 공중보건 위기는 공공병원의 확충 및 강화의 필요성을 강조하지만, 공공병원에 대한 전반적인 인식은 여전히 부정적인 것으로 나타났다. 공공병원에 대한 부정적 인식은 공공병원의 역할과 기능 수행에 어려움을 초래할 수 있어 이 연구에서는 공공병원에 대한 부정적 인식에 영향을 미치는 요인을 분석하고자 한다. 방법: 이 연구는 충청북도공공보건의료지원단에서 수행한 충청북도 도민의 공공보건의료 인식에 대한 실태조사 자료를 활용하였다. 연구에는 조사에 응답한 만 19세 이상 성인 1,916명이 포함되었으며, 공공병원 이용 경험과 공공의료 및 공공병원 정책 평가가 공공병원의 부정적 인식에 미치는 영향을 분석하기 위해 로지스틱 회귀분석을 활용하였다. 결과: 공공병원 미이용 경험(adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.69; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-2.74)과 공공의료 및 공공병원 정책에 대한 부정적인 평가는 공공병원의 부정적 인식에 유의한 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다. 구체적으로, 공공의료 정책에서 필수의료 제공이 부족하다고 느낀 경우(aOR, 4.14; 95% CI, 2.59-6.62), 지역 간 격차가 크다고 느낀 경우(aOR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.02-2.49), 보장성(aOR, 1.99; 95% CI, 1.25-3.16)과 의료의 질(aOR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.50-3.80)이 낮다고 평가한 경우 공공병원에 대한 부정적 인식이 증가하였으며, 공공병원 정책에서는 시설·장비가 열악하다고 느낀 경우(aOR, 3.74; 95% CI, 2.36-5.94), 진료과목 및 서비스가 부족하다고 느낀 경우(aOR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.21-3.01), 진료수준이 낮다고 평가한 경우(aOR, 2.71; 95% CI, 1.72-4.25) 공공병원에 대한 부정적 인식이 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 결론: 이 연구는 공공병원 이용 경험과 공공의료 및 공공병원 정책 평가를 고려한 공공병원 인식 제고의 필요성을 강조한다.

농촌보건의료서비스 향상을 위한 제도 개선방안 (Policy Measures for Improving Health Care Services in Rural Areas)

  • 문옥륜;이규식;박재용;고대하;이기효
    • 농촌의학ㆍ지역보건
    • /
    • 제16권2호
    • /
    • pp.97-119
    • /
    • 1991
  • 본 연구는 농촌지역의 보건의료수준이 의료자원의 양적, 질적 격차와 의료이용과 의료접근도 및 건강수준의 면 등에서 도시지역보다 낙후되어 있다는 사실을 각종 통계지표를 이용하여 논증하였다. 다음으로 이러한 격차를 빚은 농촌보건사업의 문제점을 파악하여 이에 대한 대처방안을 농촌보건사업의 조직, 인력, 시설 및 장비, 재원 및 그리고 관리라는 5가지 부문으로 나누어서 모색해 보았는데 구체적으로는 첫째, 농촌보건 인력의 자질향상과 적정배치방안의 수립, 둘째, 농촌보건인력의 생산성 증대, 셋째, 보건소 및 지소의 운영개선, 넷째, 취약지 민간병원의 운영 개선, 다섯째, 사회, 경제여건의 변화에 따른 새로운 보건사업의 개발, 여섯째, 통합적인 보건의료인력관리 전담기관의 설립 등의 정책대안을 제시하고 있다.

  • PDF

치매노인의 거주형태 및 서비스유형에 따른 간호관리의 효과분석 (A Study on the Effectiveness of Care of Patients with Alzheimer s Disease According to Residence Arrangement and Types of Services)

  • 홍여신;박현애;조남옥
    • 대한간호학회지
    • /
    • 제26권4호
    • /
    • pp.768-781
    • /
    • 1996
  • The problem of care of patients and families with Alzheimer's disease has become a conscious raising social policy issue in Korea. The government of the Republic of Korea has become cognizant of the situation and has begun searching for ways to remedy it. Thus, there is a need for a comprehensive under-standing of the situation in which patients and their families are struggling and the enormous problems of care. With a realization of the urgent need, this study was done to investigate the situation and the care needs of families with patients with Alzheimer's Disease, and to compare the effectiveness of services utilized by the families in terms of cost and effects on patient's conditions and on family live. The Subjects for the study were 29 families with hospitalized patients, 25 families utilizing hospital outpatient clinics, 14 families utilizing day care facilities, and 16 families with homebound patients. A total of 84 families were interviewed by four trained interviewers using structured and semistructured questionnaires. The data produced from these interviews included : the patient's stage of Alzheimer's disease, patient's bizarre behavior, hours spent on patient care per day, family burden and quality of life, direct and indirect costs encountered in the care of patients, and the families' evaluation of the effectiveness of the services received. The data were analyzed to determine the relationships between family charactersistics, patient's conditions and services utilization. The effectiveness of each of the service entities was assessed through families evaluation and hoped for service and comparisons were made between services in terms of the cost-effectiveness ratios. After initial comparison of cost-effectiveness ratios, further analysis was done to compare between groups for incremental effectiveness for each incremental unit of cost to determine the most cost-effective service entities. The findings of the study are as fellows : 1. The choice of living arrangement and the types of services are a function of the stage of Alzheimer's condition and the economic status of the family. 2. Comparision of the cost of care showed that most expenses were encountered in by families with hospitalization, families using outpatient services, and families using day care services in that order. The least expense was involved in the care of homebound patients. The economic burden felt by families was in the same order as expenses. 3. The average number of hours spent on daily patient care was 9.9 hours for the outpatient clinic users, 9.7 hours for homebound patients, and 5.4 hours for day care users. 4. There were significant differences in the patient's conditions (CDRL), bizarre behaviors and the families's burden by living arrangement and /or types of service. However, no significant difference was found between groups in the family's quality of life. 5. The families rated the services of day care center as most effective for the care of the patients and families, except for a few families who had experienced some improvement in the patient's conditions. The outpatient clinic users expressed psychological comforts mainly in that the patient was being taken care of. For those hospitalized patients, families expressed the comfort of being relieved of the burden of care and that the patient is being professionally cared for. Form the analysis of the costs, hours of patient care, patient's bizarre behaviors, family's quality of life and burdens, and family's evaluation of services, it is concluded that up to the mid stage of Alzheimer's condition, the utilization of day care center services is found to be the most cost-effective, and toward the end stage of the Alzheimer's disease, it is hoped that there will be a establishment of long term or short term in-patient facilities for the protection of patients and preservation of the integrity of families for less cost. Thus. it was concluded that the family centered system of care is the most effective for Korea with systematic support systems developed for the care of patients and their families according to the needs of families as the patient's condition deteriorates.

  • PDF

The Quality of Life after Lymphaticovenous Anastomosis in 118 Lower Limb Lymphedema Patients

  • Jin Geun Kwon;Yeongsong Kim;Min Young Jang;Hyunsuk Peter Suh;Changsik John Pak;Vaughan Keeley;Jae Yong Jeon;Joon Pio Hong
    • Archives of Plastic Surgery
    • /
    • 제50권5호
    • /
    • pp.514-522
    • /
    • 2023
  • Background This is a prospective study on 118 patients who underwent lymphaticovenous anastomosis (LVA) due to secondary lower limb lymphedema between January 2018 and October 2020 to evaluate patients' quality of life (QOL) using the Quality of Life Measure for Limb Lymphedema (LYMQoL) questionnaire. Methods The outcome measurement included the LYMQoL leg scoring system tool evaluating the function, appearance, symptom, mood, and overall outcome. In addition, correlation analysis was performed for three factors: based on International Society of Lymphology (ISL) stages, disease duration, and amount of volume reduction. Results The LYMQoL tool overall satisfaction score significantly increased at all intervals from 4.4 ± 0.2 preoperative to 6.5 ± 0.3 postoperative at 12 months (p < 0.001). Significant findings were seen for each domain scores compared preoperatively and at 12 months: function score (18.6 ± 0.5 to 15.4 ± 0.6), appearance score (17.8 ± 0.5 to 16.0 ± 0.6), symptom score (11.8 ± 0.3 to 8.9 ± 0.4), and mood score (14.5 ± 0.4 to 11.4 ± 0.5; p < 0.05). The correlation analysis between improvement of the overall score and the ISL stage (p = 0.610, correlation coefficient [r] = -0.047), disease duration (p = 0.659, r = -0.041), and amount of limb volume reduction (p = 0.454, r = -0.070) showed no statistical significance. Conclusion The QOL of secondary lower limb lymphedema patients was significantly improved after LVA regardless of the severity of disease, duration of disease, and amount of volume reduction after LVA. Understanding the patient-reported outcome measurement will help the surgeons to manage and guide the expectations of the patients.

간호사의 비정규직 고용실태 및 관련요인에 관한 연구 (A Study on the Nurses' Contingent Employment and Related Factors)

  • 최숙자
    • 간호행정학회지
    • /
    • 제5권3호
    • /
    • pp.477-500
    • /
    • 1999
  • Korean labor market has showed remarkable change of the increase in the amount of unemployment and contingent employment since IMF bailout agreement. There is a theoretical position to explain this increase in contingent employment at hospitals with the notion of flexibility. The high flexibility of employment due to the increase of contingent employees is becoming very important part in new business strategy of hospitals. The types of contingent employment of the nurse are part-time employment temporary employment, fixed-term employment, and internship which was introduced in early 1999. Recently, Korean health care industry managers have paid attention to the customer oriented service, rationalization of business administration, service quality control so that they can adjust their business to outer environment. Especially their efforts concentrate on the wage reduction through efficient and scientific control of man power because wage shares about 40% of total cost. This dissertation aims at verifying the phenomena of the contingent employment of the nurse and analyzing the related factors and problems. To rephrase these aims in ordinal: First, verifying the phenomena of contingent employment of the nurse. Second, verifying the problems of that phenomena. Third, analyzing the related factors of the contingent employment of the nurse. To accomplish these research goals, a statistical survey was executed. in which 384 questionnaires-66 for manager nurses, 318 for contingent nurses - were given to nurses working at 66 hospitals-which have at least 100 beds-in Seoul. Among them, 187 questionnaires-38 from manager nurses, 149 from contingent nurses'- 'were returned. Then, the data coded and submitted to T-test, $X^2$ -test, variance analysis(ANOVA), correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, Logistic Regression with SAS program. The research results of the contingent nurses are followings: 1. The average career term at the present hospital 8.4 months: duty-on days per month are 24.2 days: working time per day is 7.9 hours. These results showed little difference from regular nurses. 2. Their wage level is about 70% of regular nurses except for internship nurses whose wage level is 41% of regular nurses. To break down the wage composition, part-time nurses and internship nurses get few allowance and bonus. And contingent nurses get very low level of additional pay except for fixed-term nurses who are under similar condition of employment to regular nurses. These results show that hospital managers are trying to reduce the labor cost not only through the direct way of wage reduction but through differential treatment of bonus, retirement allowance, and other additional pay. 3. The problem of contingent employment: low level of pay; high level of turn-over rate: weakening of union; low level of working condition: heavy burden of work; inhuman treatment. The contingent nurses consider these problems more seriously than manager nurses do. What manager nurses regard problematic is the absence of feeling-belonged and responsibility of the contingent nurses. 4. The factors strongly related with the rate of the number of contingent nurses for the number of regular nurses; gross turn-over nurses; average in-patients per day; staring wage of graduate from professional college: the type of hospital ownership; the number of beds; the gap between gross newcomer nurses and gross turn-over nurses. The factors related with their gross wage per month; the number of beds; applying of health insurance; applying of industrial casualty insurance; applying of yearly-paid leave; the type of hospital ownership; average out-patients per day; gross turn-over nurses. The meaningful factors which make difference by employment type: monthly-paid leave; physiological leave. The logistic regression analysis using these two factors shows that monthly-paid leave is related with the type of hospital ownership; the number of beds; average out-patient per day, and physiological leave is related with the gross newcomer nurses; gross turn-over nurses; the number of beds.

  • PDF

말기암 환자와 가족의 의료 및 간호 서비스 요구 (The Study on the Medical and Nursing Service Needs of the Terminal Cancer Patients and Their Caregivers)

  • 이소우;이은옥;허대석;노국희;김현숙;김선례;김성자;김정희;이경옥
    • 대한간호학회지
    • /
    • 제28권4호
    • /
    • pp.958-969
    • /
    • 1998
  • In this study, we attempted to investigate the needs and problems of the terminal cancer patients and their family caregivers to provide them with nursing information to improve their quality of life and prepare for a peaceful death. Data was collected from August 1, 1995 to July 31, 1996 at the internal medicine unit of S hospital in Seoul area with the two groups of participants who were family members of terminal cancer patients seventy four of them were in-patients and 34 were out-patients who were discharged from the same hospital for home care. The research tool used in this study has been developed by selecting the questionnaires from various references, modifying them for our purpose and refining them based on the results of preliminary study. While general background information about the patients was obtained by reviewing their medical records, all other information was collected by interviewing the primary family caregivers of the patients using the questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed with the SPSS PC/sup +/ program. The results of this study are summarized as follows ; 1) Most frequently complained symptoms of the terminal cancer patients were in the order of pain(87%), weakness(86.1%), anorexia(83.3%) and fatigue (80.6%). 2) Main therapies for the terminal cancer patients were pain control (58.3%), hyperalimentation(47.2%) and antibiotics(21.3%). 3) Special medical devices that terminal cancer patients used most were oxygen device (11.1%), and feeding tube(5.6%). Other devices were used by less than 5% of the patients. 4) The mobility of 70.4% of the patients was worse than ECOG 3 level, they had to stay in bed more than 50% of a day. 5) Patients wanted their medical staffs to help relieve pain(45.4%), various physical symptoms(29.6%), and problems associated with their emotion(11.1%). 6) 16.7% of the family caregivers hoped for full recovery of the patients, refusing to admit the status of the patients. Also, 37% wished for the extension of the patient's life at least for 6 months. 7) Only 38.9% of the family members was preparing for the patient's funeral. 8) 45.4% of family caregivers prefer hospital as the place for the patient's death, 39.8% their own home, and 14.8% undetermined. 9) Caregivers of the patients were mostly close family members, i.e., spouse(62%), and sons and daughters or daughter-in-laws(21.3%). 10) 43.5% of the family caregivers were aware of hospice care. 46.8% of them learned about the hospice care from the mass media, 27.7% from health professionals, and the rest from books and other sources. 11) Caregivers were asked about the most difficult problems they encounter in home care, 41 of them pointed out the lack of health professionals they can contact, counsel and get help from in case of emergency, 17 identified the difficulty of finding appropriate transportation to hospital, and 13 stated the difficulty of admission in hospital as needed. 12) 93.6% of family caregivers demanded 24-hour hot line, 80% the visiting nurses and doctors, and 69.4% the volunteer's help. The above results indicate that terminal patients and their family caregivers demand help from qualified health professionals whenever necessary. Hospice care system led by well-trained medical and nursing staffs is one of the viable answers for such demands.

  • PDF