Website information on visiting policies at specialist in-patient palliative care settings during COVID-19 pandemic across Central and Eastern Europe: a quantitative and qualitative study
, 2, 1, 3, 2
Abstract
Introduction: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, visiting policies in various healthcare centres across theworld have changed. Visiting patients by relatives and friends have been stopped or significantly limited.New conditions and legal constraints for family visits had to be implemented also at in-patient palliativecare settings, even though accompanying a dying person is crucial for the quality of the end of life.The study aimed to identify and review the visiting policies at in-patient specialist palliative care settingsacross Central and Eastern Europe.
Patients and methods: The study was conducted one year after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak fromMay to October 2021. Information about visiting policies, published on official websites of the in-patientspecialised palliative care settings (stationary hospices and hospital-based palliative care units) from Centraland Eastern European countries, were identified and categorised. The websites which lacked informationabout visiting policy during the COVID-19 pandemic were excluded. Qualitative and quantitative analysisof the obtained data was conducted by using content analysis techniques and descriptive analysis.The content from websites was translated into Polish with the usage of the Google Translate machine tool.
Results: Data from 55 in-patient palliative care settings from 8 countries were collected and analysed(83.6% from Poland, and the other from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakiaand Ukraine). In 43.6% of the organisations, visits were stopped and 56.4% of settings published informationabout the special requirements for visiting arrangements. In 32.7% of all examined units upfrontapproval from a physician or the head of a department for visiting a patient was required, and 29.1%published information about personal protective equipment. 32.7% of organizations recommendedtelephone contact with the patient, and 12.7% provided video calls.
Conclusions: Web information regarding visiting patients in in-patient palliative care settings is limited.There is a need to establish detailed requirements for the visits with better access to the website for thevisitors, in case of a global disease outbreak.
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemicpalliative carepalliative care unitstationary hospicevisiting policies
References
- Lachman P, García-Elorrio E. Making health and healthcare really matter in less resourced countries. Int J Qual Health Care. 2021; 33(Supplement_2): ii8–ii9.
- Naicker S, Plange-Rhule J, Tutt RC, et al. Shortage of healthcare workers in developing countries--Africa. Ethn Dis. 2009; 19(1 Suppl 1): 60–64.
- Lo ML, Huang CC, Hu TH, et al. Quality assessments of end-of-life care by medical record review for patients dying in intensive care units in Taiwan. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020; 60(6): 1092–1099.e1.
- Otani H, Yoshida S, Morita T, et al. Meaningful communication before death, but not present at the time of death itself, is associated with better outcomes on measures of depression and complicated grief among bereaved family members of cancer patients. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2017; 54(3): 273–279.
- Saarinen J, Mishina K, Soikkeli-Jalonen A, et al. Family members' participation in palliative inpatient care: An integrative review. Scand J Caring Sci. 2021 [Epub ahead of print].
- Sudore RL, Casarett D, Smith D, et al. Family involvement at the end-of-life and receipt of quality care. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2014; 48(6): 1108–1116.
- Butler H. The Value of Family Support at the End of Life. Eleanor Mann Sch Nurs Undergrad Honor Theses [Internet]. 2021 May 1. https://scholarworks.uark.edu/nursuht/125 (23.04.2022).
- Shandilya M, Sharma S, Das PP, Charak S. Depression: A Challenge during Palliative Care. In: Cascella M, Stones MJ. ed. Suggestions for Addressing Clinical and Non-Clinical Issues in Palliative Care. IntechOpen, London 2021.
- Möllerberg ML, Årestedt K, Swahnberg K, et al. Family sense of coherence and its associations with hope, anxiety and symptoms of depression in persons with cancer in palliative phase and their family members: A cross-sectional study. Palliat Med. 2019; 33(10): 1310–1318.
- Zaider T, Kissane D. The assessment and management of family distress during palliative care. Curr Opin Support Palliat Care. 2009; 3(1): 67–71.
- Kapitsinis N. The underlying factors of the COVID‐19 spatially uneven spread. Initial evidence from regions in nine EU countries. Regional Science Policy & Practice. 2020; 12(6): 1027–1045.
- Hsu YC, Liu YA, Lin MH, et al. Visiting policies of hospice wards during the COVID-19 pandemic: an environmental scan in taiwan. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020; 17(8).
- Hugelius K, Harada N, Marutani M. Consequences of visiting restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic: An integrative review. Int J Nurs Stud. 2021; 121: 104000.
- Ritchey KC, Foy A, McArdel E, et al. Reinventing palliative care delivery in the era of COVID-19: how telemedicine can support end of life care. Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2020; 37(11): 992–997.
- Rüthrich MM, Giessen-Jung C, Borgmann S, et al. LEOSS Study Group. COVID-19 in cancer patients: clinical characteristics and outcome-an analysis of the LEOSS registry. Ann Hematol. 2021; 100(2): 383–393.
- Panjrath GS, Krepp J. COVID-19 and heart failure: harsh reality of pre-existing conditions. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2020; 76(20): 2349–2351.
- Ann-Yi S, Azhar A, Bruera E. Dying alone during a pandemic. J Palliat Med. 2021; 24(12): 1905–1908.
- McMillan K, Wright DK, McPherson CJ, et al. Visitor restrictions, palliative care, and epistemic agency: a qualitative study of nurses' relational practice during the coronavirus pandemic. Glob Qual Nurs Res. 2021; 8: 23333936211051702.
- Weaver MS, Rosenberg AR, Fry A, et al. Impact of the coronavirus pandemic on pediatric palliative care team structures, services, and care delivery. J Palliat Med. 2021; 24(8): 1213–1220.
- Hanna JR, Rapa E, Dalton LJ, et al. Health and social care professionals' experiences of providing end of life care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study. Palliat Med. 2021; 35(7): 1249–1257.
- Powell VD, Silveira MJ. Palliative care for older adults with multimorbidity in the time of COVID 19. J Aging Soc Policy. 2021; 33(4-5): 500–508.
- Ölcer S, Idris M, Yilmaz-Aslan Y, et al. “We are taking every precaution to do our part...”: a comparative analysis of nursing, palliative and hospice care facilities’ websites during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC Health Serv Res. .
- Costantini M, Sleeman KE, Peruselli C, et al. Response and role of palliative care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A national telephone survey of hospices in Italy. Palliat Med. 2020; 34(7): 889–895.
- Cobb N, Papali A, Pisani L, et al. COVID-LMIC Task Force and the Mahidol-Oxford Research Unit (MORU). Pragmatic recommendations for infection prevention and control practices for healthcare facilities in low- and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2021; 104(3_Suppl): 25–33.
- Dunleavy L, Preston N, Bajwah S, et al. 'Necessity is the mother of invention': Specialist palliative care service innovation and practice change in response to COVID-19. Results from a multinational survey (CovPall). Palliat Med. 2021; 35(5): 814–829.
- Boufkhed S, Namisango E, Luyirika E, et al. Preparedness of African palliative care services to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic: a rapid assessment. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020; 60(6): e10–e26.
- McNeil MJ, Kaye EC, Vedaraju Y, et al. Global experiences of pediatric palliative care teams during the first 6 months of the sars-cov-2 pandemic. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2021; 62(3): e91–e99.
- Wei E, Segall J, Villanueva Y, et al. Coping with trauma, celebrating life: reinventing patient and staff support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Aff (Millwood). 2020; 39(9): 1597–1600.
- Lau J, Knudsen J, Jackson H, et al. Staying connected in the COVID-19 pandemic: telehealth at the largest safety-net system in the united states. Health Aff (Millwood). 2020; 39(8): 1437–1442.
- Arias-Casais N, Garralda E, Rhee JY, de Lima L, Pons-Izquierdo JJ, Clark D, Hasselaar J, Ling J, Mosoiu D, Centeno C. EAPC Atlas of Palliative Care in Europe 2019. https://dadun.unav.edu/handle/10171/56787 (14.05.2022).
