Trial of Seamless Regional Cooperation in Palliative Care of Cancer Patients Using Communication Tools of Cooperation

Abstract

Regional cooperation in palliative medicine involves multidisciplinary team care. It is very important for cancer patients to choose an appropriate place of stay during their end-of-life period. As the Nagoya Memorial Hospital does not have a palliative care ward, collaborating with other facilities offering palliative care and home care becomes pivotal. Therefore the Higashi-Nagoya home care social gathering was organized to improve communication and cooperation among regional health care professionals. Through discussions during this social gathering, the communication tools for cooperation in palliative care were outlined in November, 2015. We reviewed the outcome of 35 patients referred from our hospital using the communication tools for cooperation in palliative care: 25 patients were referred to chronic care hospitals including palliative care facilities, and 10 patients received palliative care at home; 23 died in the palliative care ward, 6 died at home, and 4 died at our hospital. A questionnaire survey conducted among the community health care professionals revealed that the introduction of this tool would be useful in providing accurate information on the prognosis of patients, level of understanding between the patients and their family, and patients’ views on life and death. Using the communication tool for communication would contribute to realizing seamless palliative care in the region surrounding our hospital, which would in turn lead to local team work and shared responsibilities to provide optimal palliative care.