Health- and disease-related data of inpatients in palliative care units of the Comprehensive Cancer Centers and other hospitals in comparison-Data from the Hospice and Palliative Care Register

Background The National Hospice and Palliative Registry is a database for palliative care facilities documenting a core data set for quality assurance and scientific evaluations. Objectives The study aims identifying differences between patients in palliative care units treated in Comprehensive Cancer Centers (CCC) or other hospitals (OH) focussing on sociodemographic and health/disease-related characteristics. Methods Descriptive data analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics 21 included patients treated from 2014 to 2018. Comparisons included sociodemographic data, diagnoses, ECOG status and treatment duration. Results 12,922 patient data were analyzed (CCC n = 4975/OH = 7947). In CCCs 79.8% had a tumor diagnosis, in other hospitals 85.1%. The proportion of patients with ECOG 4 was higher in CCCs than in other hospitals. The average length of stay in CCCs was 12.6 days, in other hospitals 11.3 days (p = 0.023). Conclusions Data show differences between patients in palliative care implicating CCCs treating more complex palliative care patients than other hospitals.