Cancers
Has the Early Majority Been Reached? Specialised Inpatient Palliative Care Utilisation in Common Solid Tumours in Germany
Par Marcel Alexander Kamp, Martina Kern, Nazife Dinc et 3 autres.
Contenu en anglais
Résumé
Background
Randomised trials indicate that early integration of specialised palliative care improves quality of life and, in some studies, survival in advanced cancer, yet its implementation in inpatient oncology remains inconsistent. This study quantifies the coded utilisation of specialised inpatient palliative care in German hospitals and interprets adoption patterns using the diffusion of innovations theory.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of nationwide hospital cases reimbursed under the German diagnosis-related groups (DRG) system in 2023. The analysis included the most common solid malignancies and assessed the utilisation of specialised inpatient palliative care overall and stratified by metastatic status, tumour entity, comorbidities, and treating medical specialties.