When a person is seriously ill different health professionals will be involved. This can be helpful as each will contribute something to the care. It also can be frustrating if the seriously ill person and their doctor do not see each other very often. This may mean re-telling the same story to different people. Some people have described this as ‘managing chaos’.
If someone is ill for a long time, things that have happened are easily forgotten. Sometimes keeping a diary can help, with everything written down to show to health professionals. This can help everyone communicate. If a patient diary is being kept, all health professionals should be informed. Sometimes nursing records are kept in the home, which can be useful for communication.
The management of a person’s care works best when everyone is working together. There are ways that this can be organised. Sometimes a case manager is assigned to coordinate care. Sometimes the palliative care service will act as a coordinator and talk to everyone, sometimes the community nurse or GP will do this. Sometimes though, this can be overlooked.
If things are getting complicated a ‘case conference’ or ‘team care arrangement’ can organised by a GP. This brings together all of the health professionals who are involved, to help coordinate care.
Resources
Related CareSearch pages
Who provides palliative care?
Role of health professionals
The role of specialist palliative care
Referring to palliative care
This page was created on 26 May 2009 and is due for review in May 2011