It’s hard to be in two places at one time yet most doctors are under the pressure to be in, not just two, but multiple, places at one time. Patients need consistent monitoring, help and assistance; a difficult job for any one person to manage. In her New York Times column, Dr. Pauline Chen wrote about the necessity of staying with a patient from the “time you lay your hands on the patient” throughout the patient’s discharge or end.

Chen admits while this is a mantra she learned during surgical training, it is one that many doctors have forgotten – as noted in a recent University of Washington study.

Last week, The Archives of Internal Medicine published the results of a study from Seattle that examined the feelings of abandonment at the end of life from the perspective of patients, caregivers, nurses and physicians. Investigators from UW and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center followed 55 patients with terminal diseases in the year leading up to their death, as well as the dozens of family caregivers, nurses and physicians involved in their care.

Most families and patients felt abandoned by their doctors while most doctors felt they were providing adequate time. This difference might be due to the fact that physicians were unaware of the importance for patients, and caregivers, of closure. A sense of closure, according to the article, helped mitigate any feelings of abandonment.

These problems suggest that is a need for a standard of care for following through with end-of-life patients and their families in the medical and hospital arenas. Using AllMed’s Web site, you can communicate and contact other hospitals and doctors to find out what they’re doing in these situations. Using our Web site is a powerful tool that can create a standard of care.

Read the full article here http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/health/12chen.html?_r=1

and make sure to sound off on the message boards.