Virtual Palliative Care: Evaluating Innovative Models of End-of-Life Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic

There are over 280,000 annual deaths in Canada, and relatively few home-based providers to deliver care to the majority who prefer to die there. The COVID-19 pandemic posed many challenges for healthcare delivery, particularly for those at the end-of-life who prefer to die at home. Virtual care involves delivery of care through telephone or video-based technology. End-of-life care use was rapidly upscaled across the healthcare system to address gaps in providing in-person care while preventing transmission of COVID-19. However, there are concerns that virtual care may exacerbate existing disparities in access to care for some people. This study incorporates requests from health policymakers to study the use of virtual end-of-life care and to inform health policy initiatives that improve equitable access post-pandemic. We will evaluate which people accessed virtual end-of-life care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether it is able to deliver high-quality care post-pandemic.