Data were collected retrospectively in a cross-sectional
comparative study at Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo,
Norway, between autumn 2007 and spring 2009. The
study developed from a quality assurance project that was
conducted in 2007 and explored how the care of dying
patients at the hospital had developed over the last
30 years. The hospital is a 181-bed hospital in Norway and
has four medical wards, one geriatric ward, three surgical
wards and one intensive care u