• Country: Republic of Korea
  • Official Title: Clinical Assistant Professor, MD, PhD
  • Department: Center for Palliative Care and Clinical Ethics
  • Institute: Seoul National University Hospital
  • E-Mail: ifi1024@snu.ac.kr

Speech Title

The impact of palliative care consultation on reducing antibiotic overuse in hospitalized patients with terminal cancer at the end of life: Korea experience
透過安寧緩和共照減少住院末期癌症患者生命末期的抗生素過度使用：韓國經驗

Providing appropriate medical care at the end of life (EOL) for seriously ill patients benefits the patient by ensuring effective symptom management and a dignified death. For healthcare professionals, it contributes to improving the quality of EOL care, delivering good clinical practice, and alleviating their moral distress. At a healthcare system level, it promotes efficient use of medical resources and reduces unnecessary healthcare costs. Therefore, it is crucial to reduce non-beneficial or potentially inappropriate treatments at the EOL and provide appropriate medical care.

To achieve this, advance care planning should be initiated early and in a timely manner. This process allows for identifying the patient’s values and preferences, which should guide a goals-of-care discussion involving healthcare providers, patients, families, and other informal caregivers. Based on this discussion, shared decision-making is essential, during a series of care transitions.

Palliative care is a medical approach aimed at improving the quality of life for patients with serious illnesses and their families. To provide high-quality care across various healthcare settings, it is essential that general palliative care provided by primary care professionals and specialty palliative care delivered by palliative care specialists are well integrated.

Hospital-based palliative care consultation is a form of specialty palliative care provided by an interdisciplinary team. It facilitates discussions and communication among stakeholders, including patients, healthcare professionals, and families, while supporting and guiding them toward better palliative care practices. This lecture will explore how palliative care consultations in tertiary hospitals, focused on acute care, impact various aspects of EOL healthcare utilization.