Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine & the Australasian Chapter of Palliative Medicine
Recommendations from the Australia & New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine on referrals, care planning, oxygen therapy, feeding tubes & medication review. ANZSPM is a specialty medical society that facilitates professional development and support for its members and promotes the practice of palliative medicine.
1.
Do not delay discussion of and referral to palliative care for a patient with serious illness just because they are pursuing disease-directed treatment.
Palliative care provides an added layer of support to patients with life-limiting disease and their families. Symptomatic patients can benefit regardless of their diagnosis, prognosis or disease treatment regimen. Studies show that integrating palliative care with disease-modifying therapies improves pain and symptom control, as well as patient quality of life and family satisfaction. Early access to palliative care has been shown to reduce aggressive therapies at the end of life, prolong life in certain patient populations, and significantly reduce hospital costs.
Supporting evidence
- Greer JA, Pirl WF, Jackson VA, et al. Effect of early palliative care on chemotherapy use and end-of-life care in patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. Journal of Clin Oncology 2012;30(4):394-400.
- Temel JS, Greer JA, Muzikansky A, et al. Early palliative care for patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. New England Journal of Medicine 2010;363(8):733-42.
- Bakitas M, Lyons KD, Hegel MT, et al. Effects of a palliative care intervention on clinical outcomes in patients with advanced cancer: the Project ENABLE II randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2009;302(7):741-9.
- Gade G, Venohr I, Conner D, et al. Impact of an inpatient palliative care team: a randomized control trial. Journal of Palliative Medicine 2008;11(2):180-90.
- Morrison RS, Penrod JD, Cassel JB, et al. Cost savings associated with US hospital palliative care consultation programs. Arch Intern Med 2008;168(16):1783-90.
How this list was made
Fellows from the Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine and Australasian Chapter of Palliative Medicine (ANZSPM/AChPM) convened a working group to produce an EVOLVE list for palliative medicine. The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) assisted this working group in compiling a list of 15 clinical practices in palliative medicine which may be overused, inappropriate or of limited effectiveness in a given clinical context based on a desktop review of similar work done overseas.
This list was then sent out to all ANZSPM and AChPM members, seeking feedback on whether the items fully captured the concerns of clinicians in an Australasian palliative medicine context and if not, whether any items should be omitted and/or new items added. 40 responses to this email were received. Based on these, 3 items were removed leaving a shortlist of 12. An online survey was then sent to all ANZSPM and AChPM members asking respondents to rate each item against three criteria from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest), and to nominate any additional practices worthy of consideration.
The criteria used to rate the practices were strength of evidence, significance in palliative care and whether palliative care physicians could make a difference in influencing the incidence of the practice in question. Based on the 114 responses to this survey, the top 5 were selected.
- 1 Do not delay discussion of and referral to palliative care for a patient with serious illness just because they are pursuing disease-directed treatment.
- 2 Limit routine use of antipsychotic drugs to manage symptoms of delirium.
- 3 Do not use oxygen therapy to treat non-hypoxic dyspnoea.
- 4 Target referrals to bereavement services for family and caregivers of patients in palliative care settings to those experiencing more complicated forms of grief rather than as a routine practice.
- 5 To avoid adverse medication interactions and adverse drug events in cases of polypharmacy, do not prescribe medication without conducting a drug regime review.