Paliatívna medicína a liečba bolesti 2/2011

Difficulties of short-time hospital stay in hospice

Due to overly short hospitalization in the sick-bed hospice, not all of the conveniences the institution offers can be utilised. 327 patients were hospitalized in the Hospice of Holy Hill in 2010. 57 of the patients (i.e. 17,43 %) died in three days and sooner. 101 of the patients (i.e. 30,88 %) died in seven days (inclusive) after being accepted. The lack of information that the doctors sending patients into hospices have and prolonged and uneffective oncological treatment are considered to be the major causes of short-time hospitalizations. In the author’s opinion it is essential to constantly and patiently persuade doctors of many different specializations, nurses and also nonspecialists, that the hospice is not a place for people to quickly expire but to spend dignifiedly their last weeks of their life.

Keywords: hospice, duration of hospitalization, palliative treatment.