Published in

Oxford University Press (OUP), Family Practice, 6(22), p. 644-646

DOI: 10.1093/fampra/cmi071

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Receiving care at home at end of life: characteristics of patients receiving Hospice at Home care.

Journal article published in 2005 by Freya Tyrer, Catherine Exley ORCID
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Background: Specialist Hospice at Home (HAH) services play an important role in the provision of care for people who choose to die at home. Methods: A pilot evaluation of a new HAH scheme in East Midlands, UK was carried out between January and December 2003, in which routine data were collected and analysed. Results: In 2003, 155 people received the HAH service. Most patients (83%) were over the age of 60 and had a cancer diagnosis (92%). Almost one-third of patients waited for 2 days or longer to receive care from the HAH scheme. These patients were around three times as likely to be in an inpatient hospice (RR = 3.27; 95% CI = 1.19–8.95) or an acute hospital (RR = 2.85; 95% CI = 1.33–6.09) when they were referred. The median length of service use was 4 days. Conclusions: The HAH service enabled people to die at home in the last days of life. Given the aging population, we would expect the demand for such services to further increase. Shortcomings identified included delay in receiving care for people moving to home from hospices and acute hospitals.