Accessibility to specialist palliative care services in Germany: a geographical network analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The need for palliative care will increase over the next years because of the rise in deaths from chronic illness and demographic changes. The provision of specialist palliative care (SPC) in Germany (palliative care units (PCU), specialist palliative home care (SPHC) teams and palliative care advisory (PCA) teams) has been expanded in recent years. Despite the increasing availability, there is still insufficient coverage with long travel times. The aim was to describe the spatial distribution of SPC services in Germany, to calculate the potential accessibility of facilities and to assess potential spatial under-provision.

Methods

Retrospective cross-sectional study with regional analysis of SPC services in Germany. Addresses of SPC services registered online were

SUBMITTER: Gesell D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10364400 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature