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Table 1 Descriptive statistics

From: A pilot study on patient-related costs and factors associated with the cost of specialist palliative care in the hospital: first steps towards a patient classification system in Germany

Episode type

Palliative care unit

(N = 30)

Consultation

(N = 114)

na

(%a)/mean ± SD

na

(%a)/mean ± SD

Age

30

68.9 ± 13.5

114

66.2 ± 13.3

Sex

 Male

15

(50%)

56

(49.1%)

 Female

15

(50%)

58

(50.9%)

Major diagnosis

 Oncological

25

(88.9%)

98

(87.4%)

 Lung disease

1

(0.9%)

 Liver disease

1

(3.7%)

3

(2.7%)

 Heart disease

2

(7.4%)

8

(7.2%)

 Other

2

(1.8%)

Length of hospital stay (days)

30

9.4 ± 8.2

114

6.2 ± 5.3

Episode length (days)b

30

9.4 ± 8.2

114

2.8 ± 3.0

AKPS at beginning of episode

30

31.7 ± 15.1

111

44.1 ± 22.1

AKPS at end of episode

30

28.0 ± 14.2

111

38.4 ± 22.1

IPOS at beginning of episodec

14

29.7 ± 7.1

12

25.1 ± 6.8

IPOS at end of episodec

13

29.2 ± 8.0

32

24.8 ± 7.6

Phase of illness at beginning of the episode

 Stable

9

(30.0%)

56

(50.5%)

 Unstable

12

(40.0%)

23

(20.7%)

 Deteriorating

8

(26.7%)

26

(23.4%)

 Terminal

1

(3.3%)

6

(5.4%)

Phase of illness at end of episode

 Stable

12

(40%)

30

(27.0%)

 Unstable

6

(20%)

32

(28.8%)

 Deteriorating

7

(23.3%)

35

(34.5%)

 Terminal

5

(16.7%)

14

(12.6%)

Consciousness at beginning of episode

 Alert

26

(86.7%)

61

(89.7%)

 Somnolent

3

(10.0%)

3

(10.0%)

 Stuporous

1

(3.3%)

 Comatose

1

(3.3%)

5

(16.7%)

Consciousness at end of episode

 Alert

21

(70.0%)

85

(81.7%)

 Somnolent

4

(5.9%)

8

(7.7%)

 Stuporous

3

(2.9%)

 Comatose

1

(3.3%)

8

(7.7%)

Number of SPC professions

30

5.8 ± 1.7

114

3.3 ± 1.7

Combinations of involved SPC professions involved

 Physician or nurse

40

(35.5%)

 Physician and nurse (p&n)

6

(5.3%)

 (p&n) + 1 other

4

(13.3%)

15

(13.2%)

 (p&n) + 2 others

3

(10.0%)

33

(29.0%)

 (p&n) + 3 others

4

(13.3%)

18

(15.8%)

 (p&n) + 4 others

8

(26.7%)

1

(0.9%)

 (p&n) + 5 others

5

(16.7%)

 

 (p&n) + 6 others

6

(20.0%)

 

Type of discharge

 Home

4

(14.8%)

41

(35.7%)

 Hospital

3

(11.1%)

33

(29.0%)

 Nursing home

1

(3.7%)

1

(0.9%)

 Hospice

6

(22.2%)

1

(0.9%)

 Deceased

13

(48.2%)

24

(21.1%)

 Other

14

(12.3%)

  1. AKPS: Australian Karnofsky Performance Score; SPC: specialist palliative care; IPOS: Integrated Palliative Care Outcome Score
  2. aNumber/percentage of non-missing observations
  3. bWe defined episode length as length of stay at hospital for palliative care unit episodes and, for consultation episodes, as maximum of 1 day or the lower bound of the time range specified by the procedure code relevant to specialist palliative care
  4. cObservations with no missing values for any dimension