COVID-19 und Palliativversorgung

With knowledge, skills, and attitudes to treatment goal establishment and treatment decisions, palliative care can contribute to appropriate use of scare resources during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Palliative medicine also delivers recommendations on management of symptoms of breathlessness, anxiety, and restlessness, and provides concepts for communication with patients and their relatives/caregivers in spite of pandemic-related restrictions. In the national Palliative Care in Times of Pandemics (PallPan, https://pallpan.de/) project, 16 university palliative care centers have contributed to development of 32 recommendations, with best-practice examples for patients, relatives/caregivers, health care professionals, and decision-makers in the health care system. PallPan also includes recommendations for bereavement care in times of pandemic.