Care Coordination in Palliative Home Care: Who Plays the Key Role?
Author (Corporation)
Publication date
2020
Typ of student thesis
Course of study
Type
01A - Journal article
Editors
Editor (Corporation)
Supervisor
Parent work
International Journal of Integrated Care
Special issue
DOI of the original publication
Link
Series
Series number
Volume
20
Issue / Number
3
Pages / Duration
Patent number
Publisher / Publishing institution
Ubiquity Press
Place of publication / Event location
Edition
Version
Programming language
Assignee
Practice partner / Client
Abstract
Background: Clearly identified professionals who are appointed for care coordination are invaluable for ensuring efficient coordination of health care services. However, challenges to identifying roles in palliative care are well documented in literature. Notably, in order to meet high demands on palliative home care settings, many care practitioners perform tasks that surpass the responsibilities and regulations of their role, including care coordination. Without clearly defined roles, standards of care cannot be guaranteed. Yet, little is understood about who plays the key role in palliative home care.
Aim: The present study aims to address the gap in the research by identifying who plays a key role in coordination in palliative home care.
Methods: Interviews with general practitioners (GPs), nurses and relatives of palliative patients were carried out in Swiss cantons (Vaud, Ticino, Luzern and Basel) to identify key coordinators of care. Interviews were analyzed using content analysis and presented using grounded theory.
Results: Findings indicated that there was considerable ambiguity of the key coordinator role. 1) Causal conditions of this phenomenon were; informality of professional roles and lack of communication between team members, 2) Consequences of this included; conflicting understandings of key coordinator role and family members feeling overburdened, 3) Strategies adopted by interviewees included; adapting or taking control of care coordination. These findings are highly indicative of areas for improvement for care coordination in palliative home care settings. Specifically, they underline a profound need for clear communication between palliative care service providers regarding which professionals assume a key coordative role, or who are delegated a coordinative role at any given time. Crucially, since the findings reveal that relatives are intimately involved in care coordination, the findings point to a lack of adequate financial and psycho-social support for relatives of palliative patients who are burdened with coordination tasks, without the appropriate recompense.
Keywords
Palliative home care, quality of care, comparing perspectives, family caregivers, palliative professionals, palliative care, care coordination, home care, Switzerland, qualitative study
Subject (DDC)
300 - Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie
610 - Medizin und Gesundheit
610 - Medizin und Gesundheit
Event
Exhibition start date
Exhibition end date
Conference start date
Conference end date
Date of the last check
ISBN
ISSN
1568-4156
Language
English
Created during FHNW affiliation
Yes
Strategic action fields FHNW
Publication status
Published
Review
Peer review of the complete publication
Open access category
License
Citation
REEVES, Emily, Brigitte LIEBIG und Reka SCHWEIGHOFFER, 2020. Care Coordination in Palliative Home Care: Who Plays the Key Role? International Journal of Integrated Care. 2020. Bd. 20, Nr. 3. DOI 10.5334/ijic.5466. Verfügbar unter: https://doi.org/10.26041/fhnw-3594