Strengthening Palliative and Home Care Service During COVID-19 Pandemic in Developing Country: A Single Institution Report

Abstract

Palliative care is an essential part of integrated care to reduce the suffering condition (physical, psychological, social and occupational, or even spiritual conditions) caused by the patient’s health condition and to improve quality of life. The service of palliative care is significantly increased, commonly at the end-of-life care. The most prevalent diagnosis in our Palliative Care unit is benign tumor and malignancy (35.7%), followed by stroke (14.2%) and the post-surgery patient who needed wound care (12.9%). The number of home visits for palliative care increased from 1537 in 2020 to 2110 in 2021. Because of the low number of nurses in our unit, the compensation adds some nurses to reduce the workload. In conclusion, the need for home visit palliative care during the COVID-19 pandemic is still increasing, but this condition should be followed by increasing the quantity and quality of home visits.