Factors influencing place of death in Germany.

Context: Knowledge about factors influencing the place of death may be very useful for the planning of public health strategies to improve the situation of terminally ill patients.

Objectives: The aim of our study was to determine where people died in the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate in 2008. We further wanted to detect which factors had an influence on the place of death.

End-of-life care in Germany: Study design, methods and first results of the EPACS study (Establishment of Hospice and Palliative Care Services in Germany).

Background: In order to tackle the deficits in the provision of palliative home care, profound structural changes in the outpatient sector were introduced by law in Germany in 2007. The EPACS study was carried out (Research Accompanying the Establishment of Hospice and Palliative Care Services in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) to document the quality of inpatient and outpatient end-of-life care in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, before the implementation of these changes. With this article we focus on the study design and methods of the EPACS-Study.