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Health Care Use at the End of Life in Western Canada is the first report of its kind to examine the use of health services by people nearing the end of their lives. “Studies have shown that when given the option, most people would prefer to die at home, instead of in a hospital or in an institutional setting,” says Anne McFarlane, CIHI’s Executive Director for Western Canada. “This report shows that patients typically require more health care services in the final days, weeks and months of life. Understanding the types of services they need is crucial for developing new end-of-life care strategies, especially as the number of older persons in our population increases in the coming years.” The study looked at four broad categories of patients who were nearing the end of their lives. Terminal Illness patients (68%), which include those with cancer, were the most likely to have died in a hospital, compared to Organ Failure (62%), Frailty (50%) or Sudden Death (29%) patients. Of the almost 37,000 people who died in hospital, just over a quarter received some form of palliative care, and the majority of these were terminally ill patients. |