Identifying patients for palliative care in primary care in Brazil: Project Estar ao Seu Lado’s experience

Objective: To present the process of identification of palliative care patients in a Family Health Strategy´s team in Brazil. Methods: The identification process ocurred 1) using the system of work of a Family Health Strategy Team and the principles of primary care and 2) by applying the SPICT, a tool to help identify patients who might benefit with palliative care. Results: Twenty-three patients were enrolled in the palliative care program at the beginning of the project. By the end of the 12 month period, we had identified 38 patients. Six patients died during the time period. Thus during 2015, 38 people were identified with palliative needs from a total population of 3,000 (1.2% of the practice population). Of these 58% (n=22) were women, 63% (n=24) over 65 years, 74.7% (n=28) reported white ethnicity. The most frequent major diagnoses were cancer (39.5%), psychiatric disease (18.4%), cardiovascular disease (15.8%), frailty (10.5%), dementia (10.5%), and respiratory disease (7.9%). Multimorbity was higher in patients over 65 years (t-test, p=0.009) with a median of four diseases. The most prevalent conditions among those suffering multimorbidity were cardiovascular disease (73.7%), psychiatric disease (65.8%), cancer (50%), frailty (39.5%), diabetes mellitus (31.6%), and respiratory diseases (23.7%). Conclusion: We applied a tool for identifying patients who would benefit from palliative care in primary care in a community of Rio Grande. It was practical and feasible. Its further refinement, implementation and evaluation in Brazil is indicated at community centres of Family Health Strategy, specifically taking account of social and economic factors.