Abstract

GARCIA-TREVIJANO-CABETAS, L; DEL VILLAR-GUERRA, P; LOZANO-RINCON, L  and  CANO-GARCINUNO, A. Starting of a new pediatric palliative care program in a general hospital: characteristics of the population and use of resources. Anales Sis San Navarra [online]. 2022, vol.45, n.1, e0989.  Epub Nov 07, 2022. ISSN 1137-6627.  https://dx.doi.org/10.23938/assn.0989.

This article sets out to describe the characteristics of patients at a second-level hospital who are likely to receive pediatric palliative care (PPC), the frequency of visits to the emergency room, admissions and technological devices used.

A retrospective study was carried out of the patients who received care from the start of the PPC program (January 2017 to January 2020) at a secondary-level hospital.

Twenty-nine patients were included, 58.6% male with mean age at entry into the study of 2.3 years (SD: 2.4); 44.8% of them were from rural areas. The prevalence of multimorbidity was 41%, with a higher frequency of neurological pathology. Respiratory infection was the most frequent cause of emergency care (n = 360) and hospitalization (n=145). Half of patients (51.7%) depended on medical devices.

Better knowledge of the resources used by this population can lead to more effective distribution/management that in turn can enable PPC to be offered regardless of the place of residence.

Keywords : Pediatric palliative care; Second level hospital; Palliative care; Health resources.

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