The purpose of this study was to explore the wishes of patients and their relatives with regard to talking about the EOL in an acute hospital setting when living with a life-threatening disease. However, there is therefore a need for further clarification of the actual wishes of patients and their relatives concerning EOL conversations in an acute hospital setting. Talking about the EOL is associated with reduced costs and better quality of care in the final weeks of life. Knowledge of the patients' uneven distribution in the hospital system can underpin organisational strategies to focus on end-of-life care provision.Įnd-of-life (EOL) conversations are highly important for patients living with life-threatening diseases and for their relatives. More than one in five inpatients in Danish hospitals are imminently dying or in their last year of life. 25% of the deceased (n = 740) died during the index episode, corresponding to 5.5% of all the prevalent inpatients.
Deceased patients were older than survivors (76 versus 64 years, median) and had longer hospital index-stays (13 versus six days, median). The median time to death was 59 days (54/66 days for women/men). 24% men, 20% women) 27% in medical, 15% in surgical and 50% in oncological/haematological departments. 22% died during the one-year follow-up (range: 17-37% per hospital. Patients were followed for one year.Ī total of 13,412 inpatients were resident in 26 Danish hospitals on 10 April 2013 (range: 106-1,173 patients per hospital). This was a record-linkage cohort study of all patients, who were in public somatic hospitals in Denmark on 10 April 2013.
The aims of this study were to determine the proportion of prevalent in-patients who died during the following 12 months, to present characteristics among deceased and survivors, and to identify in which hospitals, departments or specialities imminently dying patients appear most frequently. Knowledge about these patients could attract attention towards needs for their identification and for optimisation of end-of-life care initiatives. Little is known about the prevalence and distribution in Denmark of hospital inpatients who are in their last year of life.
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