Configuration of Palliative Care Clinics and Integration with Home Health Care Services: Current Practice in Turkey

BACKGROUND/AIMS The establishment of palliative care clinics (PCCs) and the integration between PCCs and home health care are important for both patient comfort and disease-related cost reduction. We aimed to analyze PCC distribution and structure of state hospitals along with human resources, and to evaluate the integration of PCCs with home health care services in Turkey. MATERIAL and METHODS Data of PCCs started between January 2015 and February 2017 were analyzed in this study with the help of data obtained from the Turkish Ministry of Health. RESULTS PCCs are available in 28.9% of state hospitals active in Turkey. Of the total 2957 staff working in PCCs, 77.6% are health care professionals, with 9.9% being doctors. Home health care service (HHCS) units are available in 76.3% of hospitals with PCCs. Service was offered to 48,953 patients in PCCs, 5.7% of whom were transferred to HHCS in an integrational manner. CONCLUSION Integration between PCCs and HHCS remains at an inadequate level. We believe that the benefits of integration should be observed by patients, relatives, and health personnel, thereby increasing awareness and accelerating integration. In addition, we believe that hospital information management systems can be used for this purpose and software programs can be developed to accelerate integration between these 2 units.