The Preference for Acute Rehospitalization Scale: Evaluating Preference for Acute Rehospitalization in Pediatric Hospice Patients.

Abstract

Introduction: Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, children are able to access pediatric hospice while still pursuing life-prolonging care. This can create confusion between hospice and palliative care staff and families about current goals of care (GOC), which evolve over time. Methods: Hospice and palliative care teams created, implemented, and evaluated a five-point scale to summarize the Preference for Acute Rehospitalization (PAR) Scale for children on concurrent care hospice. After 3 months, users were surveyed about the PAR Scale. Results: Most users reported they agreed or strongly agreed the PAR Scale helped them to understand families' GOC and feel more confident giving advice with urgent questions. Conclusions: The PAR Scale is a useful tool to help hospice and palliative workers quickly identify GOC for families accessing the concurrent care for children hospice benefit. Further validation in a larger study is needed to confirm these results.