@article {LeysenBJGPO.2020.0100, author = {Bert Leysen and Bart Van den Eynden and Johan Wens}, title = {Where do GPs find patients with possible palliative care needs? A cross-sectional descriptive study}, elocation-id = {BJGPO.2020.0100}, year = {2021}, doi = {10.3399/BJGPO.2020.0100}, publisher = {Royal College of General Practitioners}, abstract = {Background For GPs to implement early palliative care, the first step is to identify patients with palliative care needs. The surprise question (SQ) is a screening tool that aims to aid this identification; for example, a response of {\textquoteright}no{\textquoteright} to the SQ {\textemdash} {\textquoteright}Would you be surprised if this patient would die within a year?{\textquoteright} {\textemdash} would suggest palliative care may be needed.Aim To describe setting-specific screening results of patients eligible for early palliative care in family practices, which is defined as patients aged >=45 years with GPs{\textquoteright} responses of {\textquoteright}no{\textquoteright} to the SQ.Design \& setting A secondary analysis was undertaken using a cross-sectional descriptive study in family practices in five areas in Belgium.Method GPs were recruited by targeted sampling. As a first part of an implementation research project, participating GPs provided demographic information about themselves and also provided a response to the SQ for all patients who came to the practice in 10 consecutive office days. A summary table describing the sex, age, location of contact (GP surgeries, patients{\textquoteright} homes, or nursing homes) of the patients was provided by each GP.Results Fifty-six GPs provided complete data for the practice summary tables. In total, 9150 patients were described (all ages, all settings), of which 506 patients (6\%) had a GP response of {\textquoteright}no{\textquoteright} to the SQ. The distribution of SQ-no-as-answer patients per setting was: 152/7659 (2\%) patients seen in family practice surgeries; 139/998 (14\%) patients seen in their homes; and 215/493 (44\%) patients seen in nursing homes.Conclusion There was a large number of patients with SQ-no-as-answer, with possible palliative care needs. To enhance implementation of early palliative care, future research should compare results of SQ and other screening tools with palliative care symptoms assessments.}, URL = {https://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2021/02/25/BJGPO.2020.0100}, eprint = {https://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2021/02/25/BJGPO.2020.0100.full.pdf}, journal = {BJGP Open} }