2018 Volume 13 Issue 3 Pages 245-250
Objective: Our aim is to investigate the status of palliative care in long-term care units in the hospitals established without any palliative care unit, and to explore challenges to facilitate the palliative care in the setting. Methods: Self-administered anonymous questionnaires were sent to the administrators of 211 institutions for long-term care in Tokyo, asking their status of management and usage of medical narcotics, the presence/absence of any doctor or nurse who has expertise in palliative care, the system and protocol for acceptance of cancer patients into their setting, their view about palliative care for non-cancer patients, and the difficulties encountered in palliative care at long-term care units. Results: Fifty five institutions responded. Although 89.1% of them have been accepting cancer patients and are qualified to use medical narcotics, doctors who have expertise in palliative care are present only in 32.7% of the institutions. More than 70% of them place importance on and have been practicing palliative care for non-cancer patients. The difficulties in expert knowledge/skills, narcotic administration, and pain palliation were significantly more frequent in the institutions staffed by no doctors having expertise in palliative care. Conclusion: Many long-term care institutions have been practicing palliative care for cancer/non-cancer patients, but they are encountering several difficulties. It is suggested that the presence of doctors having expertise in palliative care would decrease such difficulties.
