Out-of-Hours Primary Care and the Patients Who Die: A Survey of Deaths After Contact with a Suburban Primary Care Out-of-Hours Service

Author： Kristoffersen Jan Emil  

Publisher： Informa Healthcare

ISSN： 0281-3432

Source： Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, Vol.18, Iss.3, 2000-12, pp. : 139-142

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Abstract

Objective – To assess how and to what extent out-of-hours primary care facilities care for patients who die shortly afterwards, and whether information about deaths and causes of deaths are fed back to doctors who treated the deceased persons.Design – An observational prospective study of patients who die.Setting – An out-of-hours primary care facility providing services to a population of 78000.Subjects – 531 patients who died in the 1-year study period.Main outcome measures – Extent of reporting back about deaths to the out-of-hours primary care facility and description of contacts with out-of-hours primary care prior to death.Results – 134 of 531 deceased patients had been treated by an out-of-hours primary care physician within the last 4 weeks of life. The physicians had received information about the cause of death in only 9 of the cases (6%). Six dead patients (5%) had their condition misinterpreted by the out-of-hours primary care physicians, with a possible delay in appropriate care.Conclusion – Prompt feedback of causes of death to primary care physicians represents an important, but mostly unexploited, potential for quality improvement.

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