Evaluation of Palliative Care Related Hospital Admissions in a Regional Centre.

OBJECTIVES: A significant proportion of adults admitted to hospital are in their last year of life. We evaluated admissions for these patients. METHODS: We identified ambulance callouts to patients known to the palliative care team. Data collected included admission outcome (e.g. discharge or death). RESULTS: There were 162 ambulance callouts between 126 patients known to the palliative care team. 8 patients (6%) died within 72 hours of admission. CONCLUSION: Our data suggests many palliative care patients can be appropriately treated in the community.