Lack of knowledge on where people die and potential to do better

Place of death (home, hospital, nursing home, etc) is an end-of-life care indicator, important for guiding health policy and resource allocation to ensure the existence of services and support (in particular, palliative care) where patients are.1 Globally, an estimated 27 million people die every year with serious health-related suffering that could benefit from palliative care.2 Place of death is also relevant to other causes of death, including injuries and self-harm, for example. It applies to all humans.

Information about the place of death is collected as part of death registration systems in many countries. Analysis of this vital statistic can show changes in where we die.1 2 It offers food for thought about how health systems and societies fail or succeed in supporting patient and family preferences about the place of end-of-life care and death.3 4 It can also map…

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