Impact of a complex intervention in primary care for patients with palliative care needs in their healthcare utilization: a before-after study.

OBJECTIVES

Palliative care development in primary care is crucial worldwide. This study reports on the secondary outcomes of a study that evaluated whether a complex intervention in primary care for patients with palliative care needs impacted their healthcare utilization.

METHODS

A before-after study was conducted with family physicians and patients with palliative care needs. Physicians received palliative care training and implemented a new primary palliative care consultation model. Healthcare utilization in the 12 weeks before, during, and after the intervention was compared.

RESULTS

We analysed healthcare utilization for 33 patients with advanced disease. Pre-intervention, there were high rates of no medical consultations, emergency visits, hospital admissions, and outpatient referrals (84.8%, 75.8%, 81.8%, and 84.8%, respectively). Despite slight reductions during and after the intervention, the differences were not statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS

The reduction in healthcare utilization was not statistically significant, but the data inform sample size calculations for future economic analyses.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov ID - NCT05244590. Registration: 14th February 2022.