Palliative care work, between death and discharge.

This paper discusses a small study that was undertaken in a palliative care unit (PCU) to demonstrate reasons for the lengthy patient turnover time after the death of a patient. The study arose from a managerial challenge about the PCU's efficiency in comparison to other settings of care. While palliative care services in Australia are loosely funded on a per diem rate, casemix funding models for inpatient services in other settings reward efficiency in terms of length of stay (1).