Abstract

LOUREIRO, Natália  and  CARVALHO, Davide. Chronic Patients and Palliative Care: From Early Identification to Family-Centred Care in an Internal Medicine Service. Medicina Interna [online]. 2021, vol.28, n.3, pp.56-66.  Epub Dec 01, 2021. ISSN 0872-671X.  https://doi.org/10.24950/r/45/21/3/2021.

Chronic patients with palliative care criteria, and who require multidisciplinary care and symptomatic control manage-ment, are increasingly frequent in the inpatient unit of an Internal Medicine Service. The definition of prognosis in these patients becomes fundamental for the development of a personalized therapeutic plan (avoiding unnecessary therapies and/or investigations) for effective and adequate communication with the family to reduce the costs associated with the provision of care. Although several prognostic indexes exist in the literature, their applicability is difficult for several reasons. The authors of this article propose, therefore, as relevant data at the admission of a patient to the Internal Medicine ward, to facilitate the establishment of the prognosis and to allow a multidisciplinary approach plan, the following items: functional and cognitive status; prognosis-defining pathologies and frailty syndrome; surprise question at the emergency service; communication with the family.

Keywords : Chronic Disease; Internal Medicine; Palliative Care; Prognosis..

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