Anesthesia practitioner involvement, invasive treatments, and need in hospice pain management: A survey of patient care coordinators

Abstract

Pain management is one of the major concerns for the terminal patient. The hospice care team is a highly trained group of health care providers in the area of symptom control, including pain management, for the dying patient. Anesthesia providers also specialize in pain control. The purposes of this study were to survey hospice patient care coordinators to gain an understanding of anesthesia practitioners' involvement with hospice patients, hospice patients' access to anesthesia pain management services, and hospice patient care coordinators' attitudes toward the necessity of anesthesia pain management services for the hospice community. A questionnaire was developed to assess these issues. In general, the findings reflected minimal anesthesia practitioner involvement in the hospice community. Fifty-two percent reported that patients could benefit from invasive treatments offered by anesthesia practitioners. Forty percent responded that more patients could be considered as candidates for invasive pain management techniques if procedures were performed in the patient's home or hospice. Access to anesthesia pain management services was limited by distance to pain clinics and anesthesia practitioners, and more anesthesia pain management services were needed for hospice patients in smaller communities. Cost of anesthesia pain management was frequently proposed as a prohibitive factor.