Background: The increased number of deaths in the community happening as a result of COVID-19 has caused primary healthcare services to change their traditional service delivery in a short timeframe. Services are quickly adapting to new challenges in the practical delivery of end-of-life care to patients in the community including through virtual consultations and in the provision of timely symptom control.
Aim: To synthesise existing evidence related to the delivery of palliative and end-of-life care by primary healthcare professionals in epidemics and pandemics.
Design: Rapid systematic review using modified systematic review methods, with narrative synthesis of the evidence.
Data Sources: Searches were carried out in Medline, Embase, PsychINFO, CINAHL and Web of Science on 7th March 2020.
Results: Only five studies met the inclusion criteria, highlighting a striking lack of evidence base for the response of primary healthcare services in palliative care during epidemics and pandemics. All were observational studies. Findings were synthesised using a pandemic response framework according to 'systems' (community providers feeling disadvantaged in terms of receiving timely information and protocols), 'space' (recognised need for more care in the community), 'staff' (training needs and resilience) and 'stuff' (other aspects of managing care in pandemics including personal protective equipment, cleaning care settings and access to investigations).
Conclusions: As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, there is an urgent need for research to provide increased understanding of the role of primary care and community nursing services in palliative care, alongside hospices and community specialist palliative care providers.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0269216320947623 | DOI Listing |
J Med Internet Res
January 2025
Department of Healthcare Economics and Quality Management, School of Public Health, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic, declared in March 2020, profoundly affected global health, societal, and economic frameworks. Vaccination became a crucial tactic in combating the virus. Simultaneously, the pandemic likely underscored the internet's role as a vital resource for seeking health information.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Fragility fractures result in significant morbidity.
Objective: To review evidence on osteoporosis screening to inform the US Preventive Services Task Force.
Data Sources: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and trial registries through January 9, 2024; references, experts, and literature surveillance through July 31, 2024.
JAMA Netw Open
January 2025
Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
Importance: Nearly all Medicare Advantage (MA) plans offer dental, vision, and hearing benefits not covered by traditional Medicare (TM). However, little is known about MA enrollees' use of those benefits or how much they cost MA insurers or enrollees.
Objective: To estimate use, out-of-pocket (OOP) spending, and insurer payments for dental, hearing, and vision services among Medicare beneficiaries.
J Gen Intern Med
January 2025
Department of Neurology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Background: Previous reports suggest patient and caregiver lack of awareness of dementia. Little is known about how this varies by ethnicity and how informal (family) caregiver burden is associated with knowing a dementia diagnosis.
Objective: To investigate whether participants with probable dementia were aware of a diagnosis provided by a physician and how this differed among Mexican American and non-Hispanic White participants; whether having a primary care physician was associated with dementia diagnosis unawareness; and the association of dementia diagnosis unawareness with caregiver burden.
J Med Syst
January 2025
Department of Computing, University of North Florida, 1 UNF Dr., Jacksonville, 32246, FL, USA.
The "no-show" problem in healthcare refers to the prevalent phenomenon where patients schedule appointments with healthcare providers but fail to attend them without prior cancellation or rescheduling. In addressing this issue, our study delves into a multivariate analysis over a five-year period involving 21,969 patients. Our study introduces a predictive model framework that offers a holistic approach to managing the no-show problem in healthcare, incorporating elements into the objective function that address not only the accurate prediction of no-shows but also the management of service capacity, overbooking, and idle resource allocation resulting from mispredictions.
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