title: Transfer of information on palliative home care during the out-of-hours period.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Continuity of end-of-life care for patients receiving palliative care is an important challenge for out-of-hours services in general practice.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate how frequent information is transferred on patients receiving palliative care from GPs to the out-of-hours services, to explore the perceptions of GP's on this information transfer and to study the relation between information transfer and the used GP information systems.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a mixed-method design study. The frequency of information transfer to the out-of-hours services was investigated by analyzing a regional out-of-hours database. Barriers and promoting factors for this transfer of information were investigated by using semi-structured interviews among a purposive sample of GPs from the same region. The relation between information transfer and the GP information system was investigated by a postal questionnaire in a national random selection of GPs.
  
  
  RESULTS
  When a palliative patient contacted the out-of-hours service, for 20% of these patients, a transfer of information was available and only half of these transfers included an anticipating end-of-life plan. All interviewed GPs considered continuity of care for these patients as important. However, some doubted whether a transfer of information is relevant for the quality of care. There was no relation between the information transfer and the used GP information systems.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For only a minority of patients receiving palliative care, a transfer of information including an anticipating management plan was present. There is a large variation in the opinions of GPs on how to organize continuity of end-of-life care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. G.H.de.Bock@epi.umcg.nl
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: De Bock
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Van Kampen
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Van der Goot
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hamstra
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Dekker
authors.forename: K W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Schuit
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Van der Meer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D039602:After-Hours Care; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D005260:Female; D058006:General Practice; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D010166:Palliative Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires