Associations between the receipt of inpatient palliative care and acute care outcomes: A retrospective study

Palliative care (PC) has been shown to improve outcomes for individuals at the end of life. Despite this, many Canadians do not receive PC prior to death. The present study examines the receipt of inpatient PC and its association with location of death, as well as with admission to intensive care units (ICUs) and use of alternate level of care (ALC) beds in hospital in the last 30 days of life.

The study sample is a retrospective cohort of adult Canadians (aged 19 and older) who died between April 1, 2010, and December 31, 2014. Deaths were ascertained from the Canadian Vital Statistics Database and linked to hospitalizations records in the Discharge Abstract Database to identify the receipt of inpatient PC.

More than half (57.7%) of Canadian adults died in hospital, with only 12.6% receiving any inpatient PC in the year prior to death, and 1.7% receiving a preterminal PC designation (i.e., PC initiated prior to the last 30 days of life). In the adjusted analyses, receipt of any inpatient PC was associated with a higher likelihood of death in hospital but lower odds of ICU admission. Pre-terminal PC was associated with lower odds of death in hospital, ICU admission and ALC bed use.

This study offers new insights into the association between inpatient PC and outcomes at the end of life among Canadians. Future studies could expand on these observations to further understanding of the role of inpatient PC in the end-of-life experience for different populations in Canada.