Appropriateness of End-of-Life Care in People Dying From COPD. Applying Quality Indicators on Linked Administrative Databases

Our study found indications of inappropriate end-of-life care in people with COPD, such as high percentages of diagnostic testing and hospital admissions and low proportions receiving specialized palliative care. Risk-adjusted variation between regions was high for several QIs, indicating the usefulness of relative performance standards to improve quality of end-of-life COPD care.