Literature Review of the Evidence Base for a Hospice at Home Service

This literature review aimed to identify the evidence base for a hospice at home service at the end of life for facilitating death at home to narrow the gap between preference and reality. This study defines ‘hospice at home’ as hospice style care provided in the home environment; this means specialist palliative care, equipment and medication is available 24/7. However, services operating under this term are not uniform across the literature. Terms encountered in the literature that are used to describe ‘hospice at home services’ or elements of it include: palliative home care, out-of-hours palliative care, hospital at home, home care, community palliative care, specialist palliative care, rapid response teams, and crisis intervention.