The study was aimed at developing an independent hospice center model that would be best suited for Korea based on a literature review and the current status of local and international hospices. For the study, five local and six international hospice organizations were surveyed. Components of the hospice center model include philosophy, purpose, resources (workers, facilities, and equipment), allocation of resources, management, financial support and hospice team service. The following is a summary of the developed model: Philosophies for the hospice center were set as follows: based on the dignity of human life and humanism, help patients spend the rest of their days in a meaningful way and accept life positively. On the staff side, to pursue a team-oriented holistic approach to improve comfort and quality of life for terminally ill persons and their families. The hospice center should have 20 beds with single, two, and four bed rooms. The center should employ, either on a part-time or full-time basis, a center director, nurses, doctors, chaplains, social workers, pharmacists, dieticians, therapists, and volunteers. In addition, it will need an administrative staff, facility managers and nurses aides. The hospice should also be equipped with facilities for patients, their families, and team members, furnished with equipment and goods at the same level of a hospital. For the organizational structure, the center is represented by a center director who reports to a board and an advisory committee. Also, the center director administers a steering committee and five departments, namely, Administration, Nursing Service, Social Welfare, Religious Services, and Medical Service. Furthermore, the center should be able to utilize a direct and support delivery systems. The direct delivery system allows the hospice center to receive requests from, or transfer patients to, hospitals, clinics, other hospice organizations (by type), public health centers, religious organizations, social welfare organizations, patients, and their guardians. On the other hand, the support delivery system provides a link to outside facilities of various medical suppliers. In terms of management, details were made with regards to personnel management, records, infection control, safety, supplies and quality management. For financial support, some form of medical insurance coverage for hospice services, ways to promote a donation system and fund raising were examined. Hospice team service to be provided by the hospice center was categorized into assessment, physical care, emotional care, spiritual care, bereavement service, medication, education and demonstrations, medical supplies rental, request service, volunteer service, and respite service. Based on the results, the study has drawn up the following suggestions: 1. The proposed model for a hospice center as presented in the study needs to be tested with a pilot project. 2. Studies on criteria for legal approval and license for a hospice center need to be conducted to develop policies. 3. Studies on developing a hospice charge system and hospice standards that meet local conditions in Korea need to be conducted.
Advisory Committees ; Education ; Equipment and Supplies ; Financial Management ; Financial Support ; Fund Raising ; Hand ; Hospice Care ; Hospices* ; Humanism ; Humans ; Infection Control ; Insurance Coverage ; Korea ; Licensure ; Nurses' Aides ; Nursing Services ; Nutritionists ; Personnel Management ; Pharmacists ; Philosophy ; Public Health ; Quality of Life ; Resource Allocation ; Social Welfare ; Social Workers ; Terminally Ill ; Volunteers

The bone marrow biopsy is an integral part of the staging process in patients with malignant lymphomas. Bone marrow(BM) involvement indicates stage IV disease, but there are always a lot of cases in which clear separation is not possible when based on morphology alone. Additional difficulties are caused by morphologic discordance between the BM and the primary lymphoma. Immunohistochemical stain, mRNA in situ hybridization (ISH) for light chain restriction and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for IgH CDR3 and TCRgamma were performed to find a minimal lesion and the clonality in formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissues of 39 primary lymphomas and corresponding BM biopsy specimens. As a result, nine morphologically negative bone marrows of 18 lymphomas were positive by PCR (Group I). Among the 6 lymphoma cases with morphologically suspicious BM involvement (Group II), one was confirmed to be positive for marrow involvement by both mRNA ISH and PCR and the other four by PCR alone. The positive bone marrows of Group I and II revealed gene rearrangement at the same site as the primary lesion, suggesting the same clonality. Thirteen of 15 lymphomas with morphologically positive BM (Group III) had the same clonality in the primary lymphomas and the BM lesion. Three cases among the Group III with morphologic discordance also revealed the same clonality by PCR. This study shows that a combination of mRNA ISH and PCR in addition to an immunohistochemical stain improves the diagnostic sensitivity in the detection of BM involvement and identification of clonality. Among the three different methods used, PCR is the most sensitive in detecting a minimal lesion.
Biopsy ; Bone Marrow ; Formaldehyde ; Gene Rearrangement ; Humans ; In Situ Hybridization ; Lymphoma* ; Paraffin ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA, Messenger