Place of Death Trends and Utilization of Outpatient Palliative Care at the End of Life: Analysis of Death Certificates (2001 2011 2017) and Pseudonymized Data From Selected Palliative Medicine Consultation Services (2017) in Westphalia Germany

摘要

The largest German study on place of death was performed for deaths in selected regions of Westphalia in the years 2001 and 2011. In the period thereafter, provision of palliative care was regionally expanded. This upgrade included the establishment of palliative medicine consultation services (PMCS), combining general and specialized palliative care on an outpatient basis. A follow-up place of death survey took place in 2017. The aim was to depict the trends in place of death between 2001 and 2017. A second goal was to determine how often outpatient PMCS were used by persons who died in 2017.