Place of Death

Identifying Attributes

Care Settings
Palliative Care
Country
England
Publishing Organisation
Public Health England National End of Life Care Intelligence Network (NEoLCIN)
Type of Quality Indicator
Outcome
IOM Quality Dimension
Person-Centredness
Domain
Care of the Patient at the End of Life

Defining Attributes

Definition

This indicator gives an indication of where end of life care services are delivered and uses data from the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network, which is now part of Public Health England. Where people die and their preferences for place death are important indicators of the quality of end-of-life care. It uses the percentage of deaths in usual place of residence as a proxy for the quality of end of life care. The place of death indicator is a percentage calculated as: deaths at usual residence or those at hospitals/all deaths*100. Deaths in hospital are based on deaths from all causes. Figures are based on deaths registered, rather than deaths occurring in each year, and are based on the latest boundary and establishment type information.

Numerator

Deaths at usual residence or those at hospitals.

Denominator

All deaths registered in the reporting period.

Exclusions

Deaths in usual residence exclude all deaths from external causes, defined by International Classification of Diseases Tenth Revision (ICD-10 codes V01-Y89 and U50.9) and exclude neonatal deaths.

Use of Risk Adjustment
No
Risk Adjustments
Stratifications

Data Attributes

Type of Data Collection
Administrative data
Data Collection Methods

Uses data from the Office for National Statistics records mortality from information collected when deaths are certified and registered, a process described in detail in their mortality statistics metadata guide. Most deaths are certified by a medical practitioner who completes a medical certificate of cause of death. Usually, this certificate is taken to the registrar of births and deaths by a person known as the informant – often a relative of the person who has died. The information collected at death registration is supplied by the doctor, the informant or in some instances, the coroner. Place of death is usually given by the informant, except after inquest. The Office for National Statistics then derives 6 place-of-death groupings (home, care home, hospitals and communal establishments for the care of the sick, hospices, other communal establishments, elsewhere). The 6 Office for National Statistics groups are very similar to the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network place-of-death groups. The only difference is that the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network combines the 2 smallest ONS groups 'other communal establishments' and 'elsewhere' into a single 'other places' group. This is done because the numbers of deaths in these groups are small and therefore highly variable when reported at local authority level.

Frequency of Data Collection
Quarterly
Frequency of Data Collection in Days
91
Reporting Methods

Public reporting. The indicator is produced quarterly on a rolling 12-month basis for all Strategic Clinical Networks (SCN), Public Health England (PHE) centres, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) and Local Authorities (LA) in England.

Reporting Frequency
Annually
Reporting Frequency in Days
365
Indicator Has Recommended Targets
No

Source and Reference Attributes

Technical Specifications
Quality Indicator Confirmed to be Part of a Program Used to Monitor Quality and Safety of Care Among Older People at a Population-Level between 2012-2022
Yes
Assessed by the Australian Consortium for Aged Care Collaborators as Generally Containing Good Properties (Importance and Scientific Acceptability)
Yes
Australian Consortium for Aged Care Endorsed
No
Identified by PHARMA-Care Project
No
Upload Date
12 March 2025