What is case management in palliative care? An expert panel study

Contains fulltext : 110207.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Case management is a heterogeneous concept of care that consists of assessment, planning, implementing, coordinating, monitoring, and evaluating the options and services required to meet the client's health and service needs. This paper describes the result of an expert panel procedure to gain insight into the aims and characteristics of case management in palliative care in the Netherlands. METHODS: A modified version of the RAND(R)/University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) appropriateness method was used to formulate and rate a list of aims and characteristics of case management in palliative care. A total of 76 health care professionals, researchers and policy makers were invited to join the expert panel, of which 61% participated in at least one round. RESULTS: Nine out of ten aims of case management were met with agreement. The most important areas of disagreement with regard to characteristics of case management were hands-on nursing care by the case manager, target group of case management, performance of other tasks besides case management and accessibility of the case manager. CONCLUSIONS: Although aims are agreed upon, case management in palliative care shows a high level of variability in implementation choices. Case management should aim at maintaining continuity of care to ensure that patients and those close to them experience care as personalised, coherent and consistent

Measurement of the cross section for inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at √s=13TeV using the ATLAS detector

Inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeVis studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a data set with an integrated luminosity of 3.2fb−1. The cross section is measured as a function of the photon transverse energy above 125GeVin different regions of photon pseudorapidity. Next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD and Monte Carlo event-generator predictions are compared to the cross-section measurements and provide an adequate description of the data

Decisions at the end of life: have we come of age?

Decision making is a complex process and it is particularly challenging to make decisions with, or for, patients who are near the end of their life. Some of those challenges will not be resolved - due to our human inability to foresee the future precisely and the human proclivity to change stated preferences when faced with reality. Other challenges of the decision-making process are manageable. This commentary offers a set of approaches which may lead to progress in this field

Comparação entre instrumentos de mensuração das consequências do trauma crânio-encefálico Comparación de instrumentos de medida de las consecuencias del traumatismo encéfalocraneano Comparisons among measurement tools in traumatic brain injury outcomes

O trauma crânio-encefálico (TCE) é considerado a causa mais importante de incapacidades entre jovens e a mais freqüente causa neurológica de morbidade. Em conseqüência, há um crescente interesse em instrumentos para monitorizar a recuperação após sua ocorrência. Nesse contexto, a Escala de Resultados de Glasgow (ERG) e a Disability Rating Scale (DRS) são instrumentos bastante utilizados. A atual investigação tem como objetivo comparar os resultados observados com o uso da DRS, ERG original e ampliada. Para atingir esse propósito, foram avaliadas as conseqüências pós-trauma de 63 vítimas de TCE contuso, com idade entre 12 e 65 anos, em seguimento ambulatorial em um centro de trauma da cidade de São Paulo, entre seis meses e três anos após TCE. A comparação dos resultados permitiu concluir que, embora as três escalas fossem fortemente correlacionadas, a ERG ampliada destacou-se pela sua maior sensibilidade para detectar alterações nas vítimas com melhores condições pós-traumáticas.<br>El traumatismo encéfalocraneano (TEC) es considerado la más importante causa de incapacidad entre jóvenes y la más frecuente de morbilidad neurológica. En consecuencia, hay un creciente interés en instrumentos para monitorear la recuperación después de ocurrido el TEC. En este contexto, la Escala de Resultados de Glasgow (ERG) y la Disability Rating Scale (DRS) son instrumentos bastante utilizados. La actual investigación tiene como objetivo comparar los resultados observados con el uso de la DRS, ERG original y ampliada. Para alcanzar ese propósito, fueron evaluadas las consecuencias post trauma de 63 víctimas de TEC, con edad entre 12 y 65 años, en seguimiento ambulatorio en un centro de trauma de la ciudad de Sao Paulo, entre seis meses y tres años después del TEC. La comparación de los resultados permitió concluir que, no obstante que las tres escalas estén fuertemente correlacionadas, la ERG ampliada se destacó por su mayor sensibilidad para detectar alteraciones en las víctimas con mejores condiciones post-traumáticas.<br>Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is considered the most important cause of disability among young people and the most common neurological cause of morbidity. Consequently, there is increasing interest in scales to monitor recovery in TBI. Among these scales, two have been widely adopted: the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) and the Disability Rating Scale (DRS). The purpose of this paper is to compare the results found in DRS and in the original and extended GOS. Sixty-three closed-head injury victims, aged between 12 and 65, on an outpatient follow-up program at a trauma center in the city of São Paulo, with 6 months to 3 years post-TBI, had their characteristics and outcomes assessed. When comparing the results obtained by the scales, it was concluded that although the three of them were strongly correlated, extended GOS showed to be more sensitive in detecting changes in victims with better post-traumatic conditions