Specialist palliative care out of hours telephone advice in Ireland: a national survey.

Objectives: In 2015 the All-Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care identified access to specialist palliative care (SPC) advice out of hours (OOH) as their number one research priority. Receiving appropriate advice in response to palliative care needs OOH can address a patient/family's concerns and prevent unnecessary hospital attendances.The aim of this study was to describe the current model of SPC OOH advice in the units that run this service, and gain a greater understanding of the nature of calls received by these services.

The association between phase of illness and resource utilisation-a potential model for demonstrating clinical efficiency?

Healthcare efficiency involves demonstrating flexible inter-relationships between resource utilisation and patient need. In palliative care, five phases of patient illness have been identified: stable, unstable, deteriorating, terminal and bereaved. Evaluating the association between phase of illness and nursing activities could demonstrate clinical efficiency.

Is Inpatient Hospice Care Clinically Effective? Using Phase of Illness to Evaluate Care Outcomes for Patients Admitted to a Specialist Palliative Care Unit in Ireland.

In health care, clinical effectiveness involves evaluating the degree to which clinical interventions achieve beneficial patient and caregiver outcomes. To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of care in a specialist palliative care unit (SPCU) in Ireland, including an analysis of the temporal relationship among admission, Phase of Illness and patient and family distress. A consecutive case series with prospectively collected admission data ( = 400).