The Survival Time of Terminal Cancer Patients in a Hospice Program

某安寧療護單位癌末病人存活期之統計

吳美鳳(Mei-Fong Wu) ； 喻小珠(Sheau-Ju Yuh) ； 黃靜宜(Chin-Yi Huang) ； 蘇育德(Yu-Deh Su) ； 賴鈺嘉(Yu-Jia Lai)

《台灣家庭醫學雜誌》 10卷4期 (2000/12) Pp. 202-211

https://doi.org/10.7023/TJFM.200012.0202

摘要

癌末病人太晚轉介至安寧療護是很多國家常遇到之困境。目前，台灣僅有少數關於病人轉介至安寧療護後存活期之報告。本研究主要描述彰化基督教醫院安寧療護病人之存活期。我們蒐集從1999年1月1日到同年12月31日期間照會安寧照顧小組之所有病人。共有357人收案，其中有73(20.4%)人因某些原因中斷安寧療護，其餘284(79.6%)人持續接受安寧照顧直至死亡，並進入我們的統計。病人之存活期中位數(median survival)只有15天，其中有29.2%的人存活期小於7天，3.5%的人存活期大於180天。本研究顯示台灣癌末病患轉介安寧之時機明顯過晚，對病患、家屬、安寧療護工作賽類都是很大的壓大，亦可能因而無法達成預期之照顧目標。

並列摘要

Late referral of terminal cancer patients to hospice program commonly happens in many countries. And there is limited research about the survival time after being transferred to hospice programs in Taiwan. In this study, we will examine the survival time of terminal cancer patients after being referred to a hospice program in Changhua Christian Hospital. We registered all new patients who had a consultation with the hospice program during the period of January 1 to December 31, 1999. A total of 357 patients were enrolled in this hospice program. Excluding the 73 (20.4%) patients discontinued the comfort care, all the remaining 284 (79.6%) patients entered this study and were followed until their death. The median survival time after referral of the 284 patients studied was 15 days. There were 83(29.2%) patients who died within 7 days and 10(3.5%) patients lived longer than 180 days. The result shows that the timing of referral for terminal cancer patients is late in Taiwan. Late referral will cause much pressure to patients, families, and hospice providers as well as making it impossible to achieve the best goal of hospice are.

並列關鍵字

hospice ； cancer ； referral ； survival ； Taiwan