• Anne M Wilkinson, Claire E Johnson, Helen Walker, Valerie Colgan, Hayley Arnet, and Tapan Rai.
• Centre for Cancer and Palliative Care Research, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Blvd., Bldg. 21.460, Joondalup, Western Australia, 6027, Australia. anne.wilkinson@ecu.edu.au.
• Support Care Cancer. 2015 Nov 1; 23 (11): 3173-81.

PurposeThis study evaluates a pilot implementation of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), a clinical tool used to guide the care of dying patients in the last days of life, on the end-of-life care for dying patients in three regions in rural Australia.MethodsThe LCP was implemented at 13 participating sites: nine hospitals (general wards), one community-based palliative care service, and three in-hospital palliative care units. To evaluate the implementation of the LCP, 415 eligible patient records were examined: 223 pre-implementation and 192 post-implementation (116 on the LCP and 76 receiving usual care). The primary analysis compared all patients pre-implementation of the LCP versus all patients post-implementation.ResultsIncreases were found post-implementation for communication with other health professionals and with patients or family (pre-69 %, post-87 %; p ≤ 0.000), use of palliative medications (pre-87 %, post-98 %; p ≤ 0.000) and frequency of symptom assessments (pre-66 %, post-82 %; p ≤ 0.000). Fewer blood and radiological investigations were conducted and venous access devices used in the post-implementation groups than in the pre-implementation period.ConclusionsThis study suggests that when rigorously implemented, the LCP improves important components of end-of-life care for dying patients and their families.

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