Advanced chronic liver disease in the last year of life: a mixed methods study to understand how care in a specialist liver unit could be improved.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To identify the limitations in palliative care provision in the last year of life for people with liver cirrhosis and potential barriers to and enablers of palliative care.

Design

Mixed methods, including a retrospective case note review, qualitative focus groups and individual interviews.

Setting

A tertiary referral liver centre in the south of England (UK).

Participants

Purposively selected case notes of 30 people with cirrhosis who attended the tertiary referral liver centre and died during an 18-month period; a purposive sample of 22 liver health professionals who participated in either focus groups or individual interviews.

Primary and secondary outcomes

Data collected from case notes included hospital admissions, documented discussions of

SUBMITTER: Low J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5623344 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature