Analysis Of Hospice Referral Status And Construction Of Referral Evaluation System For Advanced Cancer Patients

ObjectiveWith the development of ageing population and increased incidence of chronicdiseases in China, hospice care is drawing the attention of the medical staff and the publicgradually. This study aims to analyze the status of hospice referral in patients withadvanced cancer in our country and build the evaluation system. It could be useful tochoose the people who are in urgent need of hospice care and promote the rational use ofhealth resources.Methods1. Questionnaire survey and on-the-spot investigation method were used to describethe referral status in hospice and in general medical facilities, and analyze the barriers andreasons and influencing factors in the process of hospice referral.2. On the basis of literature review and the results of hospice referral status analysis,constructed a hospice referral evaluation system. Revise the evaluation system anddetermine the weight of indicators by Delphi Method.Results1. The most common reason of hospice referral in our country was medical care,followed by psychological care, nursing support, social and practical support, and mannersof care or dying.2. The influence factors of referral included received hospice care education or not,profession, and education.3. The barriers of referral were medical staff related issues, patient and family relatedissues, and health system related issues.4. This study initially constructed the hospice care referral evaluation standards inour country. It included five indicators and18second indicators. It was consistent withthe former studies.Conclusion1. The study summarized the common referral barriers, reasons and influence factorsof hospice referral, which will provide the reference for the development of hospice carein our country.2. This study initially constructed the hospice care referral evaluation standard in our country, and used AHP to determine the weights of indicators, which would be helpful forspecialist hospice care service to recruit the proper patients.3. Future researches need to be done to divide the score level of this evaluationstandard to distinguish the priority of patients’ referral.