Hospital-service use in the last year of life by patients aged ⩾60 years who died of heart failure or cardiomyopathy: A retrospective linked data study

Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

Title

"Hospital-service use in the last year of life by patients aged ⩾60 years who died of heart failure or cardiomyopathy: A retrospective linked data study"

Description

This episode features Dr Gursharan K Singh (Centre for Healthcare Transformation, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Brisbane, QLD, Australia).

What is already known about the topic?

- Evidence based guidelines recommend palliative care for individuals with advanced heart failure, yet there is limited data on acute hospital and palliative care service use prior to death, to inform care planning and end-of-life services.

What this paper adds?

- Patients were generally aged ⩾80 years old and experienced repeat acute hospitalisations in the year preceding death.

- Over half died in hospital, without a hospitalisation for palliative care recorded.

- For those who had a hospitalisation for palliative care recorded, this mostly occurred in the last 7 days of life.

Implications for practice, theory, or policy

- Improving access to palliative care services in the outpatient or community setting is needed to reduce avoidable hospitalisation

- Improving access to timely palliative care, including end-of-life care, for patients with heart failure is needed.

Full paper available from:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02692163231180912

If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara Nwosu:

[e-mail]