Palliative Care Needs Among Elderly People at Emergency Department

Aim: To assess what proportion of all patients over the age of 75 who seek care at the emergency department have palliative care needs and whether these are documented in the patient's medical record.

Data collection and analysis: Patients over 75 years of age who seek care in an emergency department and are classified as triage 2-4 during initial triage are assessed by a researcher. Patients with dementia or other cognitive dysfunction will be excluded. Two types of data collection are included 1) Swedish Palliative care guide (S-PCG) documents that the researcher fills in together with the patient, 2) data from the patient's medical record, this data is collected according to a special assessment template. Data from the medical record will be collected after the patient left the emergency department.

Data collection is ongoing until 300 patients have been included in the study. Data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Implications: The percentage of previously undetected/documented palliative care needs in emergency departments is relevant for prioritizing general palliative care within e.g. housing for the elderly and primary care S-PCG can be relevant to increase the level of knowledge at these care facilities. If it turns out that many patients have palliative care needs that are not met in the emergency department, health care structures need to ensure that these patients receive help at the right level of care. This would likely mean that the number of emergency visits and hospital admissions (with suffering and reduced quality of life as a result) can be reduced.