[Factors interfering with change to home care in the end of life]

We experienced 2 cases in which both the patients and their families hoped for home care and the medical staff thought it was possible; nevertheless, this could not be carried out in the end and the patients died in the hospital. We assessed the factors that prevented the change from hospital to home care based on the 7 conditions necessary for home care described by Yamazaki. We confirmed that discrepancy between the patients and the medical staff regarding the timing for the change to home care was one of those factors. We found out that in the case of end-of-life care the will of the patient strongly influences the possibility to change to home care and that there is discrepancy between the patients and the medical staff regarding the timing for that change.