Purpose: The impact that palliative care services have had on admission to oncology services has not been well-defined. This retrospective study was undertaken in the oncology service of a general hospital where there is also a palliative care service.
Methods: The medical records of 397 patients (542 events) admitted during a period of 6 months at a single centre were reviewed.
Results: The main final diagnoses were tumour progression, infection and chemotherapy administration. Seventeen percent of patients died during hospitalisation. The decision to withdraw active treatment was taken during this time in 11% of patients.
Conclusion: Key therapeutic decisions are commonly made during hospitalisation events of patients with cancer. Our results suggest that oncologists still take care of patients at the end of life, although this may highly depend on models of health care and admission criteria.