Caracterização dos pacientes acompanhados pelo serviço de cuidados paliativos de um Hospital Universitário da Grande Vitória

Abstract

Due to the increasing involvement of chronic degenerative diseases in the world population the World Humans Organization (WHO) considered the implementation of palliative care in the health services a humanitarian need. In 2018 was promulgated in Brazil the resolution that ordain the guidelines for the organization of palliative care services within Unified Health System. Objective: To characterize the patients followed by the Palliative Care Commission (PCC) of a University Hospital in the Southeast Region of Brazil. Methods: This is descriptive-exploratory study through analysis of sociodemographic and clinical variables contained in a database and medical records of patients followed by the University Hospital Cassiano Antônio Moraes Palliative Care Commission, from 2015 to 2017. It was applied in a descriptive statistic, with frequency, average, standard deviation and minimum and maximum values of the variables. The chi- square test was used to verify possible relationships between the variable Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) score and the other analyzed variables. Results: The study population was composed of 270 patients followed in the period, being the majority male, older than 60 years old, mixed race and resident in the Greater Vitória Region. The diseases that most affected the patients were neoplasis, neurological and cardiovascular. Only 52% of the patients were evaluated by the PCC within 14 days after the hospitalization, where the interval of 14 to 31 days prevailed in the period. The most frequent time interval in palliative care was until 7 days, comprising 43% of the patients. In the period, the Palliative Performance Scale score that prevailed was 10%. This variable had a relationship of dependence with the variables time interval between the hospitalization and request of the evaluation by the PCC (p = 0.059), classification of the guiding disease (p = 0.000), time in palliative care (p = 0.009) and outcome (p = 0.000). Even with the increase in hospital discharges, the death was the most frequent outcome in the whole period. Conclusion: Through the characteristics of the patients, it was verified that the palliative care is made in end-of-life, meaning that these are requested late by the assistant team. It is hoped that study will assist in the elaboration of strategies aimed at improving and disseminating the PCC service.