End of life care for the elderly: audit of care in A&E

Location: Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Award: £59,500
Project completed January 2009

Project intentions: Many terminally ill patients die in hospital, despite wishing to die at home. This grant will fund a year-long audit of terminally ill elderly patients admitted to hospital via the Accident and Emergency Departments at St Thomas’ and King’s College Hospitals. The study will look at when and why admissions happen and how many of these patients die in hospital. The aim is to determine the extent of preventable hospital admissions and identify ways that services could be improved to enable more old people to die at home if that is their wish.

Project outcome: An executive summary of the final report can be downloaded here »