None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Heart failure is a serious long-term illness, and many people living with it need extra support as they approach the end of life. This study looks back at patients who died in one hospital to see how often specialized palliative care services were involved in their care. It also examines whether being linked with community palliative care made patients more likely to get admitted into Palliative Care Unit. The study compares different types of heart failure, and the medications people were taking near the end of life. By understanding current care patterns, the research aims to identify gaps and help improve support for heart failure patients.
Interventions
- Retrospective cohort study. No intervention administered.
- Deceased patients aged 18 years and above, whose cause of death or primary diagnosis was heart failure, and who were admitted to the study hospital between December 2019, and December 2023 were included in the study. Patients without scanned data were excluded.
- Patients were identified through primary diagnoses code for heart failure, cross-checked with progress notes, investigation reports and specialist correspondences.
- Medicat
- Retrospective cohort study. No intervention administered. - Deceased patients aged 18 years and above, whose cause of death or primary diagnosis was heart failure, and who were admitted to the study hospital between December 2019, and December 2023 were included in the study. Patients without scanned data were excluded. - Patients were identified through primary diagnoses code for heart failure, cross-checked with progress notes, investigation reports and specialist correspondences. - Medication lists were collected from pharmacy reconciliation, and ward medication charts. Linkage to community palliative care (CPC) and hospital-based palliative care consult team (HBPCCT) was identified from palliative care “Uniti” system. - For this study, LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction) was determined from trans thoracic echocardiogram (TTE) and specialist letters. - Data on demographics, specific comorbidities, HF phenotypes, hospital admissions, type of palliative care input, place of death, guideline-directed heart failure medications and the total number of medications were collected. Data on Continuous subcutaneous infusion (CSCI) and palliative care medications were collected for terminal stages.
Sponsors
Werribee Mercy Hospital
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
- Deceased patients aged 18 years and above, whose cause of death or primary diagnosis was heart failure, and who were admitted to the study hospital between December 2019, and December 2023 were included in the study. - The study hospital is a 298-bed hospital situated in fast growing outer metropolitan area. Inpatients are mainly treated by general medical teams, and there was no dedicated cardiology department during the study period.
Exclusion criteria
1. Patients without scanned/electronic medical records in CPF (medical record system of the study hospital) 2. Missing or incomplete documentations
Outcome results
None listed