title: Palliative inpatients in general hospitals: a one day observational study in Belgium.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hospital care plays a major role at the end-of-life. But little is known about the overall size and characteristics of the palliative inpatient population. The aim of our study was to analyse these aspects.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a one-day observational study in 14 randomly selected Belgian hospitals. Patients who met the definition of palliative patients were identified as palliative. Then, information about their socio-demographic characteristics, diagnoses, prognosis, and care plan were recorded and analysed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 2639 in-patients on the day of the study; 9.4% of them were identified as "palliative". The mean age of the group was 72 years. The primary diagnosis was cancer in 51% of patients and the estimated life expectancy was shorter than 3 months in 33% of patients and longer than 1 year in 28% of patients. The professional caregivers expected for most of the patients (73%), that the treatment would improve patient comfort rather than prolong life. Antibiotics, transfusions, treatments specific to the pathology, and artificial nutrition were administered in 90%, 78%, 57% and 50% of the patients, respectively, but were generally given with a view to controlling the symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This analysis presents a first national estimate of the palliative inpatient population. Our results confirm that hospitals play a major role at the end-of-life, with one out of ten inpatients identified as a "palliative" patient. These data also demonstrate the complexity of the palliative population and the substantial diversity of care that they can require.
authors.affiliation: Unité de Soins Continus, Cliniques Universitaires Saint Luc, Université Catholique de Louvain, 10 avenue Hippocrate, 1200 Bruxelles, Belgique. marianne.desmedt@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Marianne S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Desmedt
authors.forename: Yolande L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: de la Kethulle
authors.forename: Myriam I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Deveugele
authors.forename: Emmanuel A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Keirse
authors.forename: Dominique J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Paulus
authors.forename: Johan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Menten
authors.forename: Steven R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Simoens
authors.forename: Paul J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Vanden Berghe
authors.forename: Claire M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Beguin