General practitioners' perspectives on the avoidability of hospitalizations at the end of life: A mixed-method study

Background: Many patients are hospitalized in the last months of life. Little is known about the avoidability of these hospitalizations.

Aim: To explore whether and how hospitalizations could have been avoided in the last 3 months of life and barriers to avoid this, according to general practitioners in the Netherlands.

Design: Sequential mixed-method design, starting with a cross-sectional nationwide questionnaire study among general practitioners, followed by in-depth interviews.

Setting/participants: General practitioners were asked about their most recent patient who died non-suddenly and who was hospitalized in the last 3 months of life. Additionally, 18 of these general practitioners were interviewed in depth about the situation surrounding hospitalization.

Results: According to 24% of 319 general practitioners, the last hospitalization in the final 3 months of their patient's life could have been avoided. Of all avoidable hospitalizations, 46% could have been avoided by proactive communication with the patient, 36% by more communication between professionals around hospitalization, 28% by additional care and treatment at home, and 10% by patient and family support. In the in-depth interviews, general practitioners confirmed the aforementioned strategies, but also mentioned various barriers in daily practice, such as the timing of proactive communication with the patient, incompleteness of information transfer in acute situations, and the lack of awareness among patients and family that death was near.

Conclusion: A proactive approach could avoid some of the hospitalizations at the end of life, in the opinion of general practitioners. More insight is needed into communication and psychological barriers for timely discussions about end-of-life issues.