Targeted palliative care day therapy interventions using modified MYMOP2 tool can improve outcomes for patients with non-malignant diseases.

Abstract

There is a paucity of evidence supporting the benefits of palliative care day therapy services for patients with non-malignant diseases. Outcome measures in this setting are also lacking. To evaluate the use of the modified Measure Yourself Medical Outcome Profile 2 (MYMOP2) tool in tailoring day therapy services toward the needs of patients with non-malignant conditions Method: A single system, 'before and after' design quality improvement study was conducted. Data were collected regarding outcome measures, re-referral rates and mortality. After the introduction of the modified MYMOP2 tool, there was an improvement in the mean outcome scores for patients with non-malignant disease. Re-referral rates for these patients dropped by 28% during the follow up period, with no change in mortality. These findings suggest that using the modified MYMOP2 tool to tailor and measure the outcome of holistic day therapy services results in a more sustained improvement for patients with non-malignant disease.