Priorities for Evaluating Palliative Care Outcomes in Intensive Care Units.
Defining the quality of intensive care unit (ICU) care when patients are dying is challenging. Palliative care has been recommended to improve outcomes of dying ICU patients; however, traditional ICU quality indicators do not always align with palliative care. Evidence suggests that some aspects of ICU care improve when palliative care is integrated; however, consensus is lacking concerning the outcomes that should be measured. Overcoming challenges to measuring palliative care will require consensus development and rigorous research on the best way to evaluate ICU palliative care services.
School of Nursing, Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology, and Palliative Care, University of Alabama at Birmingham, NB 2M019C, 1701 University Boulevard, Birmingham, AL 35233, USA. Electronic address: mbakitas@uab.edu.
Marie
M
Bakitas
School of Nursing, Division of Geriatrics, Gerontology, and Palliative Care, University of Alabama at Birmingham, NB 2M019C, 1701 University Boulevard, Birmingham, AL 35233, USA.
J Nicholas
JN
Dionne-Odom
Division of Medical Oncology, Duke Palliative Care, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University, 2400 Pratt Street, #8043, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
Arif
A
Kamal
Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Bioinformatics Building, Suite 4124, Campus Box 7020, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Jennifer M
JM
Maguire
D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000592:standards*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D016896:Treatment Outcome
Evaluation; Intensive care unit; Outcome measures; Palliative care; Performance measures