Care pathways for the dying have been developed as a model to improve the end-of-life care of all patients. The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP) is the most widely recognised and acknowledged integrated care pathway, and has been utilised and modified across the world. CareSearch has summarised what is known of the LCP in the clinical practice sections and given implications for practice.

Resources

Many services have adapted the LCP for local use, and some of these are included here. This list is not exhaustive.

• Information from CPCRE website on End of Life care pathways for Residential Aged Care Facilities. 
• The WA Cancer and Palliative Care Network have produced a guide The WA lcp: A pathway to improved care of the dying in Western Australia (Information for health professionals)
• The Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services / Palliative Care Service has a Hospital Integrated End of Life Care Pathway. 
• The Residential Aged Care End of Life Care Pathway (RAC EoLCP) was developed by the Brisbane South Palliative Care Collaborative as part of the Local Palliative Care Grants Program.
• The Centre for Palliative Care Education and Research has produced a report on End of Life Care and Care Pathways in Victoria
• The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has information on Medical Care of Older Persons in Residential Aged Care Facilities, which includes information on the Liverpool Care Pathway highlighting the 11 goals of care for the dying patient. 
• The Australian General Practice Network Rural Palliative Care Resource kit has information and resources on End of Life Pathways. 
• The NHS (UK) has End of Life Care Strategy which includes information on EOL care pathways

Related CareSearch pages

Nurses Hub
Communication
End-of-Life Care
Working with Families

Free Full Text Article

Dy SM, Garg P, Nyberg D, Dawson PB, Pronovost PJ, Morlock L, et al. Critical pathway effectiveness: assessing the impact of patient, hospital care, and pathway characteristics using qualitative comparative analysis. Health Serv Res. 2005 Apr;40(2):499-516. 

Reference 

• Chan R, Webster J. End-of-life care pathways for improving outcomes in caring for the dying. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2010 Jan 20;(1):CD008006.
• Veerbeek L, van Zuylen L, Swart SJ, van der Maas PJ, de Vogel-Voogt E, van der Rijt CC, et al. The effect of the Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying: a multi-centre study. Palliat Med. 2008 Mar;22(2):145-51.
• Lhussier M, Carr SM, Wilcockson J. The evaluation of an end-of-life integrated care pathway. Int J Palliat Nurs. 2007 Feb;13(2):74-81.
• Luhrs CA, Penrod JD. End-of-life care pathways, Curr Opin support Palliat Care. 2007 Oct;1(3):198-201.
• Mirando S, Davies PD, Lipp A. Introducing an integrated care pathway for the last days of life. Palliat Med. 2005 Jan;19(1):33-9.
• Jack BA, Gambles M, Murphy D, Ellershaw JE. Nurses' perceptions of the Liverpool Care Pathway for the dying patient in the acute hospital setting. Int J Palliat Nurs. 2003 Sep;9(9):375-81.

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Last updated 15 February 2012*