Establishing a supportive care register improves end-of-life care for patients with advanced chronic kidney disease

BACKGROUND: End-of-life care for patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) is recognised as an important area for improvement. These patients have a significant mortality and, although some is unpredictable, there is a role for the nephrology multi-disciplinary team (MDT) and palliative care physicians to engage in advance care planning and support patients to discuss their preferences.

METHODS: Retrospective and prospective data were obtained to conduct a comparison observational study to assess the impact of introducing a supportive care register on the end-of-life care for patients with advanced CKD. An electronic supportive care register was implemented. This required a programme of multi-disciplinary staff education, collaborative working with Palliative Care to establish renal-specific protocols and dissemination activities. The impact of the intervention was assessed by analysing all deaths in two six-month periods where all those with an eGFR <15 ml/min/1.73 m(2) at the time of their death were included.

RESULTS: A total of 91 patients were included. Post-intervention, there was a 25.4% (95% CI: 6.5-44.3%, p = 0.008) improvement in patients having a documented discussion about end-of-life planning. There was also a 19.7% (95% CI: 4.0-35.5%, p = 0.01) improvement in establishing the place of death. All patients who expressed a preferred place of death died there. The intervention increased engagement with the wider MDT and led to significant improvements in access to specialist palliative care services.

CONCLUSIONS: These results show that the interventions implemented to introduce a supportive care register resulted in meaningful improvements to the end-of-life care for patients in our region with advanced CKD. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.