Table 1 Characteristics of hospitals and their palliative care programme stratified by referral ratea
|  | Total (n = 62) | Low referral ratea (n = 45) | High referral ratea (n = 17) | P-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Number of hospital admissions / year (mean, SD) | 23.622 (11.856) | 23.813 (12.626) | 23.116 (9.853) | .84 |
| Â | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | Â |
Type of hospital | Â | Â | Â | .33 |
 Tertiary | 10 (16) | 6 (13) | 4 (24) |  |
 Non-tertiary | 52 (84) | 39 (87) | 13 (76) |  |
ESMO-DC of integrated oncology and PC | 13 (21) | 8 (18) | 5 (29) | .32 |
PC assignment of the hospital executive board | 37 (60) | 27 (60) | 10 (59) | .93 |
Existence of specialist palliative care team b | Â | Â | Â | .04 |
  ≤ 3 years | 24 (39) | 21 (47) | 3 (18) |  |
  > 3 years | 38 (61) | 24 (53) | 14 (82) |  |
Presence of inpatient PC consultation services | 58 (94) | 41 (91) | 17 (100) | .57 |
Presence of dedicated PC outpatient clinic | 28 (45) | 15 (33) | 13 (76) | .004 |
Presence of dedicated acute care beds | 13 (21) | 10 (22) | 3 (18) | 1.00 |
Presence of physical dedicated PC unit (n = 13) | 6 (46) | 5 (50) | 1 (33) | .61 |
Provision of community-based palliative carec | 17 (27) | 10 (22) | 7 (41) | .14 |
Routine identification of PC patientsd | 36 (58) | 22 (51) | 13 (76) | .09 |
Triggered referral for specific diagnoses | 12 (19) | 8 (18) | 4 (24) | .72 |
Average timing of referral prior to death | Â | Â | Â | < .001 |
  < 3 days | 5 (8) | 5 (11) | 0 |  |
 4 days – 2 wks | 19 (31) | 18 (40) | 1 (6) |  |
 2 wks – 4 wks | 10 (16) | 9 (20) | 1 (6) |  |
 4 wks- 3 months | 19 (31) | 7 (16) | 12 (71) |  |
  > 3 months | 2 (3) | 2 (4) | 0 |  |
 Unknown | 7 (11) | 4 (9) | 3 (18) |  |