Measure 4.2b
- Objective area
- Continuous
- Outcome area
- Timely care
- Measure
- Proportion of inpatient unstable palliative care phases that lasted 3 days or less.
- Population
- People who received inpatient palliative care within the reference year.
- Numerator
- Number of inpatient unstable palliative care phases lasting for 3 days or less within the reference year.
- Denominator
- Number of inpatient unstable palliative care phases within the reference year.
- Computation
- (Numerator ÷ Denominator) x 100
- Disaggregation
- Age, Sex, Indigenous status, State/territory, Socioeconomic area, and Remoteness Area. See Data sources for more information on these items.
- Source
- Admitted Subacute and Non-Acute Hospital Care National Best Endeavours Data Set (ASNAHC NBEDS).
- Definitions
- Unstable palliative care phase lasting for 3 days or less – includes all unstable phases for which the time between the unstable phase start date and the unstable phase end date is equal to or less than 3 days. An unstable phase start date is defined as the date an urgent change to the care plan or emergency treatment is required. A new plan of care or emergency treatment is initiated and reviewed for effectiveness. The end of the unstable phase is when the care plan is working to resolve or improve problems and no further changes to the care plan are required, or when the patient’s death is likely to occur within a matter of days (as this signals that the patient has moved into a terminal phase). The date this occurs would be defined as the unstable phase end date. Unstable phases in which the start date and end date were not recorded were excluded.
- The recording of inpatient palliative care phases (including phase type 2, "unstable") is coded and defined by METEOR 681029.
- Notes
- The measure only captures those people who have received inpatient palliative care.
- There may be some circumstances in which it is not possible to stabilise a person in an unstable palliative care phase within 3 days due to patient and/or family choice.
- We recommend caution in the interpretation of state and territory differences. Jurisdictions may differ in their modes of service delivery and some types of palliative care may not be well represented in the available data. Further, states and territories may differ in their definitions of services or phases, and some residents may have cross-border treatment.