What makes palliative care needs “complex”? A multisite sequential explanatory mixed methods study of patients referred for specialist palliative care

Table 1 Overview of patient referrals by hospice site

Hospice	Number of referrals analysed	Source of referral^a	Hospice service referred to	Cancer as primary diagnosis %	Male %	Female %	Age Mean (range)
1	60	48% Hospital 42% GP 5% Hospital SPC 5% Hospital and GP	83% Community 15% Inpatient 2% Day therapies	88%	48%	52%	72 (48–93 yrs)
2	62	39% Hospital 29% GP 31% Hospital SPC 2% Hospital SPC and GP	89% Community 10% Inpatient 2% Day therapies	90%	55%	45%	74 (37–93 yrs)
3	60	5% Hospital 20% GP 57% Hospital SPC 18% Community SPC	0% Community 48% Inpatient 52% Day therapies	95%	48%	52%	69 (30–94 yrs)
4	57	39% Hospital 28% GP 25% Hospital SPC 2% Hospital SPC & GP 2% Community SPC 5% Hospital and GP	51% Community 21% Inpatient 21% Day therapies 7% Unknown	74%	54%	46%	74 (22–97 yrs)
All sites combined	239	33% Hospital 30% GP 29% Hospital SPC 1% Hospital SPC & GP 5% Community SPC 3% Hospital and GP	56% Community 23% Inpatient 19% Day therapies 2% Unknown	87%	51%	49%	72 (22–97 yrs)

^aNotes: ‘Hospital’ excludes the hospital specialist palliative care team. Hospital SPC means referral from the hospital specialist palliative care team. Percentages may not add to 100% due to rounding

ISSN: 1472-684X