Predictors of community death in an Australian specialist palliative care service

Background: In Australia, an aging population has intensified demand on residential aged care facilities, hospitals and palliative care services for end-of-life care. The likelihood of home death for cancer patients in South Australia has remained below 14%. Objectives: This research aims to investigate predictors for community death and preferred place of death of patients registered with an Australian community adult specialist palliative care service (SPCS). Methods: A consecutive cohort retrospective medical records and electronic database review of all referred patients who died between 1st January and 30th June 2017 was undertaken. Results: There were 456 registered patients who died in this period. The 62 rural patients and 32 patients with missing medical records were excluded. Of the remaining 362 patients, 62 did not have community face-to-face contact and were excluded. Of the 300 patients eligible, there were 143 females and mean age was 71 years. This study revealed an overall community death rate (private home and residential aged care facility) of 31.3% compared with private home death rate of 17%. There were two important predictors of community death. Firstly, family/caregiver preferred place of death had a far greater impact on likelihood of community death than patient preferred place of death. Secondly, the intensity of input from the whole palliative care team, in particular, community face-to-face visits and more specifically by nurses, were major predictors. Conclusion: Investing in community-based SPCSs may not only better support patient and family/caregiver preferences, and increase rates of community death but also reduces hospitalisation costs.