Background:

NSW Health has developed a patient flow system to identify barriers that delay patient discharges from hospitals.  The Sacred Heart Supportive & Palliative Care inpatient unit is part of St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, and participates in this system.  The trajectory, reasons why a patient is in the hospital, and barriers to a patient's discharge in a palliative care unit will likely differ from that of an acute hospital patient.  However, what palliative care inpatients are waiting for has not been explored.

Aim:

To identify what patients are waiting for during their inpatient stay, and the common barriers that delay patient discharges from an inpatient palliative care unit.

Method:

The reasons why a palliative care patient is in a palliative care unit, what patients are waiting for during their inpatient stay, and the barriers that delay patient discharge from a metropolitan teaching inpatient palliative care unit will be prospectively identified by the palliative care team (doctors and nurses) each working day over 3 months. 

In addition to the barriers identified by NSW Health, our team has identified additional reasons and barriers listed below. The prevalence of these barriers will be presented. 

Results:

This data is currently being collected. The most common factors, how each factor affects a palliative care inpatient’s trajectory, and comparisons to the acute hospital will be discussed.  These findings will assist clinicians, and hospital administrators to understand the trajectory of palliative care patients, and to identifying strategies to minimise the barriers, reduce the length of expensive hospital stays, reduce hospital costs, and improve patients’ quality of care.