Implementing a discharge assessment tool in palliative home care

Area of Science:

• Palliative Care
• End-of-Life Care
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Growing elderly populations and strained healthcare systems necessitate reflection on end-of-life care.
• Most terminally ill cancer patients prefer to die at home, yet home death rates remain low (16% in Edmonton's Capital Health Region in 1999).
• Limited data on palliative home care discharges hinders resource allocation for community-based end-of-life care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the potential of a discharge assessment tool within the Capital Health Palliative Home Care program.
• To gain insight into factors associated with home deaths among terminally ill cancer patients.
• To establish a data collection method for monitoring trends in palliative home care over time.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a discharge assessment tool for the Capital Health Palliative Home Care program.
• Data collection on patient discharges from palliative home care services.
• Analysis of discharge data to identify potential correlates of home death.

Main Results:

• The study aims to provide data on discharges from palliative home care.
• The assessment tool is expected to offer insights into reasons for home death.
• Data aggregation will enable trend monitoring in palliative home care.

Conclusions:

• A discharge assessment tool could illuminate barriers to home deaths.
• Implementing such a tool can inform resource allocation for palliative home care.
• Systematic data collection is crucial for improving end-of-life care services.