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Impact of a complex intervention in primary care for patients with palliative care needs in their healthcare
Carlos Seiça Cardoso1, Filipe Prazeres2,3,4, Cátia Nunes5
1Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbrahttps://ror.org/04z8k9a98, Coimbra, Portugal.
Objectives:
Palliative care development in primary care is crucial worldwide. This study reports on the secondary outcomes of a study that evaluated whether a complex intervention in primary care for patients with palliative care needs impacted their healthcare utilization.
Methods:
A before-after study was conducted with family physicians and patients with palliative care needs. Physicians received palliative care training and implemented a new primary palliative care consultation model. Healthcare utilization in the 12 weeks before, during, and after the intervention was compared.
Results:
We analysed healthcare utilization for 33 patients with advanced disease. Pre-intervention, there were high rates of no medical consultations, emergency visits, hospital admissions, and outpatient referrals (84.8%, 75.8%, 81.8%, and 84.8%, respectively). Despite slight reductions during and after the intervention, the differences were not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
The reduction in healthcare utilization was not statistically significant, but the data inform sample size calculations for future economic analyses.
Trial Registration:
ClinicalTrials.gov ID - NCT05244590. Registration: 14th February 2022.
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