TY - JOUR
T1 - Hospice Care for Children with Cancer
T2 - Where Do These Children Die?
AU - Thienprayoon, Rachel
AU - Lee, Simon C.
AU - Leonard, David
AU - Winick, Naomi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/7/11
Y1 - 2015/7/11
N2 - Hospice is an important provider of end of life care; many children who die of cancer enroll in hospice programs. How frequently such children remain in hospice to die at home, or disenroll from hospice and die in the hospital, has not been described. A child's location of death has important implications for quality of life and parental adaptation. This represents a subanalysis of a retrospective study of 202 consecutive oncology patients who died at a single center between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2010. Of 95 children who enrolled in hospice, 82 had known location of death. Sixty (73%) died at home or an inpatient hospice unit, 15 (18%) died in the oncology unit, 5 (6%) died in the intensive care unit, and 2 (2%) died in the emergency department. The median length of hospice services was 41 days, twice the national median of 21 days reported in adults. One quarter of children disenrolled from hospice care, ultimately dying in an acute care setting. Further studies are warranted to explore the hospice experience in children, and to address modifiable factors that may impact a family's choice to withdraw from hospice care.
AB - Hospice is an important provider of end of life care; many children who die of cancer enroll in hospice programs. How frequently such children remain in hospice to die at home, or disenroll from hospice and die in the hospital, has not been described. A child's location of death has important implications for quality of life and parental adaptation. This represents a subanalysis of a retrospective study of 202 consecutive oncology patients who died at a single center between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2010. Of 95 children who enrolled in hospice, 82 had known location of death. Sixty (73%) died at home or an inpatient hospice unit, 15 (18%) died in the oncology unit, 5 (6%) died in the intensive care unit, and 2 (2%) died in the emergency department. The median length of hospice services was 41 days, twice the national median of 21 days reported in adults. One quarter of children disenrolled from hospice care, ultimately dying in an acute care setting. Further studies are warranted to explore the hospice experience in children, and to address modifiable factors that may impact a family's choice to withdraw from hospice care.
KW - pediatric end of life care
KW - pediatric hospice
KW - pediatric oncology
KW - pediatric palliative medicine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84940104136&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84940104136&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/MPH.0000000000000331
DO - 10.1097/MPH.0000000000000331
M3 - Article
C2 - 26090871
AN - SCOPUS:84940104136
SN - 1077-4114
VL - 37
SP - 373
EP - 377
JO - Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
JF - Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
IS - 5
ER -