High proportion of elderly patients who are admitted to hospital are entering the last year of their lives

Commentary on: Pocock LV, Ives A, Pring A, et al.. Factors associated with hospital deaths in the oldest old: a cross-sectional study. Age Ageing 2016;45:372–6. Implications for practice and research This paper supports the view that a high proportion of elderly patients who are admitted to hospital are entering the last year of their lives. Clinicians might make more use of the opportunity provided by such hospital admission to discuss end-of-life care. Future research might focus on the associations between cause of death, comorbidity, deprivation and place of death in those who do not require hospital admission within 12 months of their death. Context Most people say that they would like to die at home,1 yet the majority still die in hospital.2 3 The authors set out to explore the extent to which patient demographics, cause of...
Source: Evidence-Based Nursing - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: End of life decisions (geriatric medicine), Long term care, Care of the older person, Dementia, End of life decisions (palliative care), Hospice, Memory disorders (psychiatry), End of life decisions (ethics) Source Type: research