Image: KH/RSF
For 25 years, seriously ill patients have received medical and nursing care in the final phase of their lives at the St. Vinzenz palliative care unit. This is also where the foundation stone was laid for palliative care to be integrated into many areas of the hospital today and additional facilities to be created. Upper Austria’s first inpatient palliative care facility was opened in November 1998 on the Rieder Schlossberg. Since then, 5,400 people have been admitted, on average for just under two weeks. 40 percent of them were released and 60 percent died here.
Origin of the advisory service
Behind these numbers are thousands of personal stories, but also two and a half decades of further development of a successful concept. “During this time, palliative care has become increasingly integrated into the structures and processes in the hospital,” says Christian Roden, head of the palliative care ward and deputy medical director at the Hospital of the Sisters of Mercy Ried. This is how the palliative care ward gave rise to the palliative consultation service (PKD) with a team of experts from medicine and nursing. This advises the medical profession and nursing staff in various departments of the hospital when patients there need palliative care. This primarily affects oncology, but also other specialist areas.
New therapeutic approaches
At the same time, there are still special situations that require medical care for patients directly in the palliative care unit. New therapeutic approaches have made the requirements for palliative care even more complex, especially for people with cancer.
Many treatments are now carried out in day clinics, which is why only a few hours are available for palliative care. In view of new medical possibilities, the question of what makes sense and benefit for the individual becomes even more important.
Senior physician Roden recommends asking yourself this question early on: “If you deal with it realistically, you can usually make better use of the remaining time you have left.”
Spread knowledge widely
The palliative care ward was not only the starting point for the palliative consultation service. From this nucleus, further facilities emerged, which as a whole form a center for palliative care in the Ried region and beyond.
In addition to mobile palliative care, which is provided by the Red Cross, this includes the Hospice & Palliative Academy with numerous offerings and, last but not least, the St. Barbara Hospice, which has been providing end-of-life care since the previous year – also at the hospital location.
The work in the palliative care ward is challenging but also meaningful – certainly one reason why the team is well positioned with medical and nursing experts. Volunteers are also integrated and make valuable contributions. Great importance is attached to choosing volunteers carefully, especially in this area, taking them with you carefully and taking good care of them.
Need will continue to grow
As people’s life expectancy increases, the need for palliative care will continue to grow. Living longer often means living with more health problems. That’s why it’s important to make palliative know-how more widely available, says Christian Roden: “We’re seeing more and more often that we actually have to discharge patients from the palliative care ward, but there is no follow-up care.” Hospice is now an additional option in such cases. “Ultimately, basic palliative skills must also be transferred to retirement and nursing homes and other areas,” says the palliative medicine specialist.
“The establishment of a palliative care ward was a far-sighted decision 25 years ago. Since then, it has significantly improved care for thousands of people at the end of their lives and provided important impetus for dealing with the issue of dying,” says hospital managing director Johann Minihuber.
Congress & concert
Palliative care through the ages is also the focus of this year’s Upper Austria. Hospice and Palliative Care Day, which will take place on Friday, November 10th, in the No Worries exhibition hall in Ried. The second “St. Vinzenz Hospice and Palliative Conference” was held with well-known speakers from home and abroad. The anniversary of the St. Vinzenz palliative care ward will also be celebrated on Friday, November 10th (7:30 p.m.) with an anniversary concert in the Rieder Sparkassen-Stadtsaal: The Festival Sinfonietta Linz under the direction of Lui Chan plays works by J. Haydn, JS Bach and F.
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Source: Nachrichten
