[Palliative care support teams and the commitment of primary care teams to terminally ill patients in their homes].
OBJECTIVE
To find out if the activity of palliative care support teams (PCST) does not negatively influences the performance of the primary care "care of terminally ill patients" service.


METHODS
Terminally ill patients cared for at home.


METHODS
Multicentre observational study.


METHODS
The observed variable is the increase in the number of registered patients in primary care, and the number of patients covered between the years 2002 and 2003 and the 4 intervention variables are: total visits, joint visits, assessments, and teaching sessions.


RESULTS
The number of patients covered in 2002 was 41.19%, increasing to 45.44% in 2003. The activity rate of the PCST for each 100 000 inhabitants was 526 home visits in 2003, 86.15 joint visits, 313.68 professional assessments, and 23.14 teaching sessions. The joint visits and the teaching sessions were strongly associated with an improvement in the coverage of primary care (Pearson correlation of 0.784 and 0.759, respectively). The total visits were moderately associated (0.525) and the assessments were weakly associated (0.245).


CONCLUSIONS
Joint visits and teaching sessions of a PCST are associated to an increase in the activity of primary care teams. Assessments and total visits did not have a negative influence.
Rocafort Gil
Javier
J
Programa Regional de Cuidados Paliativos, Servicio Extremeño de Salud, Mérida, Badajoz, Spain.
Herrera Molina
Emilio
E
Fernández Bermejo
Félix
F
Grajera Paredes María
María Eulalia
ME
Redondo Moralo
María José
MJ
Díaz Díez
Fátima
F
Espinosa Rojas
José Armando
JA
D006699:Home Care Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013030:Spain; D019452:Terminally Ill