The AnticiPal data extract module searches for patients with one or more indicators of palliative care needs who are NOT currently on the palliative care register and who are NOT currently living in a care home.

Summary

AnticiPal runs three different types of search. Read Codes that indicate a malignancy that has been entered within the last 18 months. If the code was entered more than 18 months ago, and there has been no repetition of the code since then, the patient is considered likely to be stable or in remission. Single Read Codes that are often associated with indicators that a person would benefit from anticipatory or palliative care. This includes codes such as 2Jd (‘frailty’). Note that there are two codes that explicitly reference palliative care: Z172 and 8BAN. These two codes are not in the listing of Read Codes that are automatically included in the palliative care register. Combination searches. There are seven different combinations of Read Codes that can trigger an identification. AnticiPal then excludes anyone who is already on a palliative care register or who is living in a care home. It does this by checking for any Read Code that, if present, would automatically add the patient to the practice palliative care register. For example, if the code 1Z01 (‘terminal illness — late stage’) is present, that patient will have automatically been added to the practice’s palliative care register. This patient is already identified, therefore AnticiPal does not include them in the list of patients. If at least one of the three types of search succeeds and the patient is not excluded, AnticiPal identifies the patient as possibly benefiting from anticipatory or palliative care.