General practitioners' perspectives on the avoidability of hospitalizations at the end of life: A mixed-method study.
BACKGROUND
Many patients are hospitalized in the last months of life. Little is known about the avoidability of these hospitalizations.


OBJECTIVE
To explore whether and how hospitalizations could have been avoided in the last 3 months of life and barriers to avoid this, according to general practitioners in the Netherlands.


METHODS
Sequential mixed-method design, starting with a cross-sectional nationwide questionnaire study among general practitioners, followed by in-depth interviews.


METHODS
General practitioners were asked about their most recent patient who died non-suddenly and who was hospitalized in the last 3 months of life. Additionally, 18 of these general practitioners were interviewed in depth about the situation surrounding hospitalization.


RESULTS
According to 24% of 319 general practitioners, the last hospitalization in the final 3 months of their patient's life could have been avoided. Of all avoidable hospitalizations, 46% could have been avoided by proactive communication with the patient, 36% by more communication between professionals around hospitalization, 28% by additional care and treatment at home, and 10% by patient and family support. In the in-depth interviews, general practitioners confirmed the aforementioned strategies, but also mentioned various barriers in daily practice, such as the timing of proactive communication with the patient, incompleteness of information transfer in acute situations, and the lack of awareness among patients and family that death was near.


CONCLUSIONS
A proactive approach could avoid some of the hospitalizations at the end of life, in the opinion of general practitioners. More insight is needed into communication and psychological barriers for timely discussions about end-of-life issues.
Department of Public and Occupational Health & Expertise Center Palliative Care VUmc, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center (VUmc), Amsterdam, The Netherlands eol@vumc.nl.
Maria C
MC
De Korte-Verhoef
Department of Public and Occupational Health & Expertise Center Palliative Care VUmc, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center (VUmc), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
H Roeline W
HR
Pasman
Department of General Practice, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Bart Pm
BP
Schweitzer
Department of Public and Occupational Health & Expertise Center Palliative Care VUmc, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center (VUmc), Amsterdam, The Netherlands Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, NIVEL, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Anneke L
AL
Francke
Department of Public and Occupational Health & Expertise Center Palliative Care VUmc, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center (VUmc), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Bregje D
BD
Onwuteaka-Philipsen
Department of Public and Occupational Health & Expertise Center Palliative Care VUmc, EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center (VUmc), Amsterdam, The Netherlands End-of-life Care Research Group, Ghent University & Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Luc
L
Deliens
Palliative care; end of life; general practice; hospitalization; primary health care; symptoms