Impact of a Comprehensive Supportive Care Team on Management of Hopelessly III Patients with Multiple Organ Failure

Palliative and End-of-Life Care: Prioritizing Compassion Within the ICU and Beyond

“…Interdisciplinary ICU and non-ICU clinicians pioneered in-hospital palliative care practices over the 4 decades following the Quinlan case (20,39). During the 1980s, clinicians at Wayne State University and Detroit Receiving Hospital developed a "comprehensive supportive care team" for "hopelessly ill" ICU patients; this team was comprised of doctors, nurses, and chaplains who provided medical care that prioritized physical and psychosocial comfort and family support (40,41). The 1990s and early 2000s saw the development of multiple interdisciplinary interventions aiming to facilitate goal-related communication and to improve the provision of comfort-related medications to the sickest ICU patients and their family members (20).…”

Medical management of decompensated heart failure in adult patients: Part 2: Organ involvement, invasive hemodynamic monitoring, device therapy, and outcomes

“…Involvement of palliative care early in the course of life-limiting chronic illness has been associated with fewer invasive procedures and interventions at the end of life, decreased length of stay, and shorter admissions to intensive care units. 134 The WHO recommends that palliative care should be used "early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life," as it "improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering. 135 A cross-sectional study comparing symptomatic HF and cancer patients reported that HF patients may benefit from palliative care as much as cancer patients.…”