Palliative residential aged care: “A collaborative project” between a palliative care service and a residential aged care facility

Aim: To compare two experiences in providing PRAC Background: The criteria by which a patient is assessed as suitable for palliative care in a long term care facility are not well described in the literature (1-4). It is also known that transfer to a nursing home is not without morbidity and mortality.(5)

A collaboration between a PCS and a RACF in the Northern suburbs of Sydney has been established. A similar project in the SSWA area (South south-western suburbs) of Sydney was previously conducted. There are differences between the two projects.

Method: Nine patients were tracked from July 2007 to May 2008 and their clinical symptoms and survival documented. These patients were compared with the initial eleven patients studied similarly from January 2006 to June 2006 in the SSWA project.

Patients who were considered stable and assessed as having a potential survival of more than a month, and needing full-time nursing care, were tracked by medical staff from the community palliative care service.

The variation of the severity of patients' symptoms was documented. The survival time of each patient was recorded. Pain, and other symptoms were recorded by the palliative care team member, at time of visit.

Results and conclusion: Data from the two areas studied will be presented in the poster.