Delay in commencement of palliative care service episodes provided to Indigenous and non-Indigenous patients: cross-sectional analysis of an Australian multi-jurisdictional dataset.

CONCLUSIONS: Although the timeliness benchmark is being met for Indigenous Australians in palliative care, they may experience delayed initiation of care episodes, particularly if younger, and especially at first encounter with a service. Qualitative research is required to explore determinants of delay in initiating palliative care episodes. The timeliness of initial referral for specialist palliative care in this population remains to be determined.
PMID: 30579330 [PubMed - in process]

Source: Rural Remote Health - December 22, 2018 Category: Rural Health Authors: Woods JA, Johnson CE, Ngo HT, Katzenellenbogen JM, Murray K, Thompson SC Tags: BMC Palliat Care Source Type: research