Posters
Academic Level (Author 1)
Fellow
Discipline Track
Patient Care
Abstract
Background: Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) is a subspecialty of medicine, recognized in 2008 by the ABMS, with over 200 fellowship programs nationally. This Supportive Care Team (SCT) interprofessional paradigm of MD’s, NP’s, PA’s, MSW’s, Pharm.D.’s, chaplains, RN’s and therapists holistically cares for persons with advanced life-limiting illnesses.
UTRGV SOM and DHR Health, in extreme south Texas on the border with Mexico, inaugurated the HPM fellowship in 2019. Its current fellow began in 2021.
The intent of the fellowship was for care and services to flow uninterruptedly throughout the RGV. However, in early 2020 the world changed indelibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: In early 2020, plans were to inaugurate the DHR Health Inpatient Palliative Care Unit (iPCU). In fact, the building’s façade says, “DHR Hospice.” (see photo) However, nearly on its opening day, DHR Health required its use as their first COVID Care Unit, which it has continued until the present time. This QI Project utilized deidentified chart reviews.
Results: Approximately 9 / 107 SCT patients at the DHR main hospital became enrolled into the General Inpatient Care (GIP) category. This data is compared to national rates (https://www.nahc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/GIPAAHPM.pdf).
Discussion: The SCT quickly pivoted to develop a “mobile PCU (mPCU)” which continued to reside within the main DHR Health hospital, rendering end-of-life and pain crisis interprofessional care to persons near life’s end. The team became these patients’ “home away from home” at DHR.
Conclusion: While it was not the intent of the SCT for this venue (the main hospital) to be its primary site for hospice care, it has continued to do so in the continued face of adversity and challenge as the pandemic has now gone through its second and third waves.
Presentation Type
Poster
Recommended Citation
Rao, Meghana and Dentino, Andrew N., "Supportive Care Team Challenges on The Border In the Pandemic" (2023). Research Colloquium. 33.
https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/colloquium/2022/posters/33
Included in
Supportive Care Team Challenges on The Border In the Pandemic
Background: Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) is a subspecialty of medicine, recognized in 2008 by the ABMS, with over 200 fellowship programs nationally. This Supportive Care Team (SCT) interprofessional paradigm of MD’s, NP’s, PA’s, MSW’s, Pharm.D.’s, chaplains, RN’s and therapists holistically cares for persons with advanced life-limiting illnesses.
UTRGV SOM and DHR Health, in extreme south Texas on the border with Mexico, inaugurated the HPM fellowship in 2019. Its current fellow began in 2021.
The intent of the fellowship was for care and services to flow uninterruptedly throughout the RGV. However, in early 2020 the world changed indelibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: In early 2020, plans were to inaugurate the DHR Health Inpatient Palliative Care Unit (iPCU). In fact, the building’s façade says, “DHR Hospice.” (see photo) However, nearly on its opening day, DHR Health required its use as their first COVID Care Unit, which it has continued until the present time. This QI Project utilized deidentified chart reviews.
Results: Approximately 9 / 107 SCT patients at the DHR main hospital became enrolled into the General Inpatient Care (GIP) category. This data is compared to national rates (https://www.nahc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/GIPAAHPM.pdf).
Discussion: The SCT quickly pivoted to develop a “mobile PCU (mPCU)” which continued to reside within the main DHR Health hospital, rendering end-of-life and pain crisis interprofessional care to persons near life’s end. The team became these patients’ “home away from home” at DHR.
Conclusion: While it was not the intent of the SCT for this venue (the main hospital) to be its primary site for hospice care, it has continued to do so in the continued face of adversity and challenge as the pandemic has now gone through its second and third waves.