Determinants of Home Death in Palliative Home Care: Using the interRAI Palliative Care to Assess End-of-Life Care

Many terminally ill patients are given the choice to die at home. This study identified determinants of home death among patients receiving palliative home care. Health information was collected using the interRAI palliative care assessment tool. The sample included health information from 536 patients receiving home health care from one community care access centre in Ontario, Canada. Patients who died at home were more likely to be functionally impaired and less likely to live alone. The patients' wish to die at home and the family's ability to cope were strong determinants of home death. This study suggests that the presence of a supportive family that is able to work with the health care team to implement a plan of care is important to the patients' ability to die at home. This study highlights the need to treat the patient and the caregiver(s) as a unit of care.