Home-Based Palliative Care for Heart Failure May Cut Risk for Dying in Hospital

MONDAY, Sept. 26, 2022 (HealthDay News) — For patients with heart failure, a regionally organized, collaborative, home-based palliative care that involves cardiologists, primary care providers, and palliative care specialists and that uses shared decision-making to promote goal- and need-concordant care may reduce the risk for dying in hospital, according to a study published online Sept. 26 in CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.

Kieran L. Quinn, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Toronto, and colleagues conducted a population-based matched cohort study of adults who died with chronic heart failure across two large health regions to examine whether regionally organized, collaborative, home-based palliative care is associated with the likelihood of patients dying at home versus in a hospital.

The researchers found that the 245 patients who received home-based palliative care had a lower risk for dying in hospital (relative risk, 52 percent) compared with the 1,172 matched patients who received usual care, with 41.2 and 78.2 percent of patients, respectively, dying in the hospital. Higher rates of clinician home visits, longer time to first hospital admission, shorter hospital stays, and more days spent at home were additional benefits associated with the collaborative approach.

“Health care systems should consider adopting and scaling a collaborative home-based model of palliative care, which was associated with improved end-of-life outcomes in patients with heart failure,” the authors write.

One author disclosed financial ties to CorHealth.