General practitioner awareness of preferred place of death and correlates of dying in a preferred place : a nationwide mortality follow-back study in the Netherlands

Abarshi, Ebun and Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Bregje and Donker, Gé and Echteld, Michael and Van den Block, Lieve and Deliens, Luc (2009) General practitioner awareness of preferred place of death and correlates of dying in a preferred place : a nationwide mortality follow-back study in the Netherlands. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 38 (4). pp. 568-577. ISSN 0885-3924

Abstract

To improve the quality of end-of-life care, general practitioner (GP) awareness of where their patients prefer to die is important. To examine GP awareness of patients' preferred place of death (POD), associated patient- and care-related characteristics, and the congruence between preferred and actual POD in The Netherlands, a mortality follow-back study was conducted between January 2005 and December 2006. Standardized registration forms were used to collect data on all nonsudden deaths (n=637) by means of the Dutch Sentinel Network, a nationally representative network of general practices. Forty-six percent of patients had GPs who were not aware of their preferred POD. Of those whose GPs were aware, 88% had preferred to die in a private or care home, 10% in a hospice or palliative care unit, and 2% in a hospital. GPs were informed by the patients themselves in 84% of cases. Having financial status "above average," a life-prolongation or palliative care goal, and using specialist palliative care services were associated with higher GP-awareness odds. Four-fifth of patients with known preferred POD died there. There is a potential for improving GP awareness of patients' preferred POD. Such awareness is enhanced when palliation is an active part of end-of-life care. The hospital is the POD least preferred by dying patients.