Private or shared room? A nationwide questionnaire survey on bereaved family members' perceptions of where patients spend their last days

<p>Background: Where patients receive end-of-life care influences their quality of life.</p> <p>Objectives: To clarify the effects of staying in a private or shared room in inpatient hospices.</p> <p>Design: A part of a Japanese multicenter survey to evaluate the quality of end-of-life care.</p> <p>Setting/participants: 779 bereaved families whose relatives who died from cancer in inpatient hospices.</p> <p>Measurements: The primary outcome was family-perceived need for improvement in environment-related professional care. Secondary end-points included:&nbsp;family satisfaction, environment-related family perception, and quality of death and dying (Good Death Inventory: GDI).</p> <p>Results: 574 responded (73.7%).&nbsp;300 patients&nbsp;were in a private room from admission to discharge,&nbsp;47&nbsp;were in a shared room less than 50% of the time, and the remaining&nbsp;85&nbsp;were in a shared room 50% or more.&nbsp;There were significant differences in the need for improvement in shared (vs. private) rooms, and in favor of private rooms for: &ldquo;privacy was protected,&rdquo; &ldquo;easy for visitors to visit,&rdquo; &ldquo;could discuss sensitive issues with medical staff without concern,&rdquo; and &ldquo;could visit at night.&rdquo;, as well as &ldquo;living in calm circumstances&rdquo; and &ldquo;spending enough time with family&rdquo; of the GDI.&nbsp;Contrarily, significant differences were found in favor of shared rooms for:&nbsp;&ldquo;the patient could interact with other patients.&rdquo;&nbsp;There was no significant difference in&nbsp;family satisfaction and total score of GDI.</p> <p>Conclusion: There are the advantages and disadvantages of spending one&rsquo;s final days in a private or shared room, and adjusting rooms according to patients and their families&rsquo; values is necessary.</p>