Table 4.
Hospital and community healthcare utilisation during the last four weeks of life
| Total N = 149 (100%) |
Cardiology n = 19 (13%) |
Neonatology n = 57 (38%) |
Neurology n = 36 (24%) |
Oncology n = 37 (25%) |
p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hospital days, Mdn (range) | 6 (0 - 28) | 20 (0 - 28) | 5 (1 - 26) | 7 (0 - 28) | 4 (0 - 28) | 0.035a |
| Care setting before hospital admissionb, n (%) | n = 88 | n = 17 | n = 23 | n = 26 | n = 22 | |
| Home | 37 (42) | 11 (64) | 0 (0) | 16 (62) | 10 (45) | NAc |
| Other hospital | 35 (40) | 3 (18) | 23 (100) | 4 (15) | 5 (23) | NAc |
| Emergency department | 8 (9) | 3 (18) | 0 (0) | 4 (15) | 1 (5) | NAc |
| Outpatient clinic | 7 (8) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (4) | 6 (27) | NAc |
| Long-term institution | 1 (1) | 0 (0) | 0 (0) | 1 (4) | 0 (0) | NAc |
| Patients at home at least for one day, n (%) | 72 (48) | 11 (58) | 3 (5) | 27 (75) | 31 (84) | < 0.001a |
| Days spent at home, Mdn (range) | 0 (0 - 28) | 8 (0 - 28) | 0 (0 - 16) | 21 (0 - 28) | 24 (0 - 28) | 0.001a |
| Care days with community care serviced, | n = 72 | n = 11 | n = 3 | n = 27 | n = 31 | |
| Mdn (range) | 1 (0 - 28) | 0 (0 - 24) | 1 (0 - 5) | 5 (0 - 28) | 0 (0 - 28) | 0.001a |
| Hours of care by community care serviced | n = 36 | n = 5 | n = 2 | n = 15 | n = 14 | |
| Mdn (range) | 34 (2 - 315) | 12 (7 - 190) | 6 (3 - 8) | 38 (4 - 315) | 23 (2 - 108) | 0.111a |
| Type of community care service | ||||||
| Family education/support, n (%) | 35 (97) | 5 (100) | 2 (100) | 14 (93) | 14 (100) | NAc |
| Needs assessment, n (%) | 31 (86) | 4 (80) | 1 (50) | 13 (87) | 13 (93) | NAc |
| Monitoring of vital signs/general condition, n (%) | 29 (81) | 5 (100) | 2 (100) | 13 (87) | 9 (64) | NAc |
| Administration of medication, n (%) | 25 (69) | 5 (100) | 0 (0) | 10 (67) | 10 (71) | NAc |
| Interventions related to enteral feeds, n (%) | 22 (61) | 5 (100) | 1 (50) | 13 (87) | 3 (21) | NAc |
| Respiratory interventions, n (%) | 18 (50) | 2 (40) | 0 (0) | 11 (73) | 5 (36) | NAc |
| Interventions related to excretion, n (%) | 14 (39 | 1 (20) | 0 (0) | 6 (40) | 7 (50) | NAc |
NA Not applicable
aAcross the four groups, based on likelihood ratio chi-square
bRepresenting the cumulative hospital admissions in all patients
cNo significance testing conducted due to small numbers
dConsisting of nurses, most of them specialised in paediatric and/or community nursing