Yonder: Anticipatory medications, food insecurity, childhood vaccination, and street sex workers

[摘要] Anticipatory medications. Anticipatorymedications are those prescribed todeteriorating patients who are approachingend-of-life care and include drugs torelieve pain and control other symptomsthat typically occur in the last days of life.Lack of access to such medications attimes of need may result in unnecessaryhospital admissions and increased patientand family distress in managing palliativecare at home. A recent Australian cohortstudy examined data from 799 palliativecare patients in 25 general practice healthrecords across a 10-year period.1 Theyfound that only 13.5% of patients receivedanticipatory medications through generalpractice, and subsequent stakeholderconsultations showed this could partly beexplained by confusion about identifyingappropriate patients. The authors suggestthat screening tools to help identify patientswith palliative care needs might help.

[学科分类] 卫生学