It is estimated that there will be a shortfall of 40,000 nurses in the United Kingdom between 2023–24 (Nuffield Trust. Closing the gap: Key areas for action on the health and care workforce. 2019). Therefore it is imperative that the Right patient is admitted at the Right time in the Right environment. The hospice has 12 specialist beds, and they receive between 23–36 (median 29.5) referrals per month, admitting 14–22 (median 19) with length of stay between 1–51 (median 26) days. If all patients were admitted, we would need a total of 14 beds.

Aims To admit patients in a timely manner to the inpatient unit by the implementation of a triage tool. To triage patients based upon their symptom burden by incorporating the integrated palliative care outcome scale (IPOS) into the triage tool. To provide education to the two main hospice referrers to utilise the RUN-PC tool as part of their referral.

Jun. -Jul. 2022. Literatures search around hospice triage tools. Regular stakeholder meetings with hospice staff, board of trustees, community and hospital palliative care teams. Aug. 2022. Phase one of RUN-PC triage tool implemented. Sept. 2022. Phase two, incorporating IPOS into the RUN-PC tool. Monthly figures were collected based upon patients admitted to the IPU based upon the RUN-PC score.

Conclusion Implementation of the RUN PC tool utilising the patients’ IPOS scores demonstrates that patients are waiting on the hospice waiting list for a shorter period of time. The RUN-PC allows us to identify the patients with the greatest urgency and we can respond accordingly to their need.