An Evaluation of Palliative Care Services at Different Settings — Patients’ Perspective

Abstract

Introduction: Palliative care into the continuum of care of chronic life- threatening illnesses can improve the quality of life of patients and their family, upholding the dignity and meeting the care needs of people at the end of their lives. The present study aimed to evaluate the delivery of palliative care from patients’ perspective. Methods and materials: This cross section quantitative study was carried out among 108 palliative patients selected conveniently to evaluate the palliative care services at different settings by face-to-face interview with pretested structured questionnaire. Result: A total of 108 palliative patients participated, with most receiving homecare (41.6%) and the rest split between outpatient (39.9%) and inpatient (18.5%) services. The majority was females (60.2%), married (70.4%), and had primary education (56.5%). Cancer (50%) and stroke (22.3%) were the leading diagnoses. Using the CES-P scale, over 87% were satisfied with clinical and interpersonal aspects of care. However, organizational factors like environment and availability had mixed reviews, with up to a third dissatisfied. Regarding preferred treatment settings, home-based care was overwhelmingly favored across disease types, with no significant differences (p=0.089). A significant association was found between patients' level of dependency and preferred care location (p<0.05), with more independent patients favoring outpatient and home-based options. Conclusion: It may be concluded that PC services in Bangladesh is satisfactory from patients’ perspective. This study may serve as a quality improvement initiative to identify the strengths and weaknesses of PC service delivery, which can be used to plan and conduct further studies.