Children’s Hospice, Tbilisi, Georgia 

I have graduated in 2011 from Denison University in Ohio as a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry. Since then I worked in GM Pharmaceuticals in Georgia as a laboratory analyst and project manager in the Research and Development department. Currently I work as an Industrial Hygienist in BP Georgia and also represent NGO “Children’s Hospice” as the project manager.

Our hospice only provides home care at the moment, with full hospice services planned to be available by the end of this year. We wanted to find a way to test the impact of our home care to the enrolled children and their families and this is how we came up with this study. We compared hospital visits before and since joining the program and found that need for hospital care has decreased significantly.

'Children’s Hospice', Tbilisi, Georgia

Background: The aim of the study was to test the effectiveness of paediatric palliative home care in improving the quality of life for its beneficiaries and their families. One of the most important factors is how often the children need medical care and how many days they spend away from home due to hospitalization.

Methods: A questionnaire was created for 15 patients, who have been enrolled in palliative homecare for at least 3 months. The questions compared how many outpatient visits and hospitalization days have been conducted since joining palliative home care, as opposed to the same length of period before. The data was analyzed with a one-tailed, paired t-test.

Results: There was a significant decrease of outpatient visits since joining the home care; p =0.049. Children have needed on average 1.4 visits since joining, as opposed to 4.9 before (in the equal time period).

There have been on average 0.5 occurrences of inpatient hospitalization since joining the home care, which is significantly less than 2.3 visits before; p=0.024.

The amount of time spent in hospitalization stays in a 3-month period averaged 2.1 days since joining the home care, which is also significantly less than 13.0 days before; p=0.037.

Conclusion: Paediatric palliative home care was suggested as a temporary project before the construction of children's hospice. The analysis shows that the amount of outpatient hospital visits have decreased significantly for children who joined the home care. The average number of days spent in hospitalization stays during a three-month period is also significantly lower since joining. The study concludes that paediatric palliative home care has been effective in reducing the need for medical care for children with palliative diseases, which is very important because the beneficiaries are subjected to less stress and can spend more time with their families. This is a positive contribution to their quality of life as well as that of their families.