Difference in quality of life of referred hospital patients after hospital palliative care team intervention.

摘要

In 2001 Selma Browde created an expanded definition of palliative medicine in South Africa that reads as follows: 'Palliative Care supplies active comprehensive care for the physical, emotional, psychosodal and spiritual suffering of the patient and the family. It starts at the moment of first contact with the patient with any illness at any stage and continues for the duration of the illness. If and when the illness becomes incurable, Palliative Care then plays the major or total role.' In the same year, Browde established a hospital palliative care team (HPCT) at the Johannesburg General Hospital. There are now six such teams in South Africa, yet no systematic evaluation had been carried out before this research.