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Repeated and long hospitalizations of cancer patients at the end of life have been suggested as indicators of low quality of palliative care. Comparing the care delivered between different countries with the help of these quality indicators may identify opportunities to improve practice. Our objective is twofold: firstly, to describe the scores for the existing quality indicators "the percentage of time spent in hospital" and "the proportion of adult patients with more than one hospitalization in the last 30 days of life" in populations of cancer patients in four European countries and to see whether these countries met previously defined performance standards; secondly, to assess whether these scores are related to receiving palliative care from their GP. Methods A mortality follow-back study was conducted, based on data recorded by representative GP networks for samples of cancer patients living at home who died non-suddenly in Belgium (n = 500), Netherlands (n = 310), Italy (n = 764), and Spain (n = 224). Results The quality indicator score for "the percentage of time spent in hospital" in the last month of life was 14.1% in Netherlands, 17.7% in Spain, 22.2% in Italy, and 24.6% in Belgium, which means that none of the countries met the performance standard of <10%. For the "proportion of patients with more than one hospitalization in the last 30 days of life", two countries met the performance standard of <4%: Netherlands (0.6%) and Italy (3.1%). Spain had a score of 4.0% and Belgium scored 5.4%. When patients received palliative care from their GP, significantly less time was spent in hospital in the last month and fewer hospitalizations took place. Conclusions European countries differ regarding the frequency and duration of hospitalizations of cancer patients in the last month of life. This reflects country-specific differences in the organization of palliative care and highlights the important role of the GP in palliative care provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Dying at home and dying at the preferred place of death are advocated to be desirable outcomes of palliative care. More insight is needed in their usefulness as quality indicators. Our objective is to describe whether “the percentage of patients dying at home” and “the percentage of patients who died in their place of preference” are feasible and informative quality indicators. Methods and Findings: A mortality follow-back study was conducted, based on data recorded by representative GP networks regarding home-dwelling patients who died non-suddenly in Belgium (n = 1036), the Netherlands (n = 512), Italy (n = 1639) or Spain (n = 565). “The percentage of patients dying at home” ranged between 35.3% (Belgium) and 50.6% (the Netherlands) in the four countries, while “the percentage of patients dying at their preferred place of death” ranged between 67.8% (Italy) and 86.0% (Spain). Both indicators were strongly associated with palliative care provision by the GP (odds ratios of 1.55–13.23 and 2.30–6.63, respectively). The quality indicator concerning the preferred place of death offers a broader view than the indicator concerning home deaths, as it takes into account all preferences met in all locations. However, GPs did not know the preferences for place of death in 39.6% (the Netherlands) to 70.3% (Italy), whereas the actual place of death was known in almost all cases. Conclusion: GPs know their patients’ actual place of death, making the percentage of home deaths a feasible indicator for collection by GPs. However, patients’ preferred place of death was often unknown to the GP. We therefore recommend using information from relatives as long as information from GPs on the preferred place of death is lacking. Timely communication about the place where patients want to be cared for at the end of life remains a challenge for GPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]