Background and objective: Unplanned hospital
readmissions provide a huge impact on palliative care
patients and their families. Causes and problematics
analysis were not performed before, thus the authors
are interested to study in these aspects and use the
results from this research to improve quality of care
in palliative population.
Methods: A retrospective study of unplanned
readmission of palliative patients was performed at
Srinagarind hospital, Thailand. The data of 39 patients
were collected from 1 October 2017 to 31 September
2018.
Results: This study includes 63 readmissions from 39
patients. Causes of readmission were divided into 3
groups. The first group was patient physical problems,
that include recurrent pain problem 45.23%, new
aspiration pneumonia 13.80% and emergency
condition such as spinal cord completion and
superior vena cava obstruction 3.45%. The second
group was family problems, that include over
expectation from treatment 10.26% and caregiver
burdens 5.23%. The third group was at advance care
planning (ACP) problems, that include full treatment
ACP 43.59% and undecided ACP 7.69%.
Conclusion: Causes of readmission are patients’
physical, family and ACP problems. Some problems
are appropriate to readmission for treatment. On the other hand, a large number of readmission can be
reduced by good palliative home care service and a
better communication.