title: Holistic outcome measurement for terminally ill cancer patients in medical centers in Taiwan.
abstract: The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine holistic patient outcomes for terminally ill cancer patients, as well as to examine whether different care patterns affect patient outcomes differently. Holistic patient outcomes were measured by the patients' quality of life, satisfaction with care, and cost of care. A purposive sampling of 224 subjects including 123 patients and 101 nurses was drawn from four medical centers in Taiwan. Among these settings, various care patterns were adopted and categorized into 4 groups: hospice inpatients, hospice team consultation, home hospice care services, and a conventional acute care group. Results showed that hospice inpatients had a higher quality of life, a higher level of satisfaction with the care and a lower average inpatient cost, whereas conventional care tended to have the highest length of hospital stay. Home hospice care patients had better psychological well-being than those with other care patterns. In addition, nurses' work satisfaction with the inpatients care unit tended to be significantly higher than with the other groups. The study findings not only provide an instrument for evaluating the quality of care, but also contribute to identifying patterns of care that will influence the dying process, which can only be beneficial for patients. Given the wide variety of healthcare services available now, understanding and selecting the most effective care patterns to enhance patient outcomes is of utmost importance in Taiwan.
authors.affiliation: Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Chung-Shan Medical College, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: K P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D018939:Holistic Nursing; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011788:Quality of Life; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013624:Taiwan; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology*