Even hospitals that have specific programs that aim to treat and relieve the severity of a patient's symptoms, rather than treating the disease itself aren't doing a very good job. Palliative care is given to alleviate pain in patient's with serious and chronic diseases, usually given at the end of a patient's life. Counseling is also given.
America's caregivers averaged a C, but not all managed to give that quality of care.
Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma all scored Fs in giving such care. Other states, including Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New York and Tennessee received the national average of a C for giving such care. Only Montana, New Hampshire and Vermont scored As, according to the new report. And some states, including Michigan and North Carolina received a B
"The good news is that hospitals nationwide have implemented palliative care programs quickly over the last six years," R. Sean Morrison, M.D., director of the non-profit National Palliative Care Research Center and senior author of the study, was quoted as saying. "The bad news is that if you live in the South or you have to rely on public or small community hospitals, you're in trouble."
Study authors say in states with more palliative care programs, patients are less likely to die or be forced to go to the intensive care unit as much in the final six months of life.
The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) released its state-by-state "report card". The report, America's Care of Serious Illness: A State-by-State Report Card on Access to Palliative Care in our Nation's Hospitals, it is based on a study published in the October 2008 issue of the Journal of Palliative Medicine.
To see how your state scored, visit the National Palliative Care Research Center website to download the report.
