Journal of palliative medicine
-
Multicenter Study
The Prevalence of Inpatients at Thirty-Three U.S. Hospitals Appropriate for and Receiving Referral to Palliative Care.
The extent of unmet need for palliative care in U.S. hospitals remains largely unknown. We conducted a multisite cross-sectional, retrospective point prevalence analysis to determine the size and characteristics of the population of inpatients at 33 U.S. hospitals who were appropriate for palliative care referral, as well as the percentage of these patients who were referred for and/or received palliative care services. We also conducted a qualitative assessment of barriers and facilitators to referral, focusing on organizational characteristics that might influence palliative care referral practices. ⋯ This study provides useful information to guide providers, administrators, researchers, and policy experts in planning for optimal provision of palliative care services to those in need.
-
Early discussions about advance care planning (ACP) have been associated with improved patient and caregiver outcomes for patients with serious illness. Many patients with heart failure (HF) may benefit from more timely ACP, in part due to the unpredictable trajectory of the disease. ⋯ A hospital-based ACP intervention using nonclinician health educators is feasible to implement and has the potential to facilitate the ACP process.
-
There is increasing recognition of the role of palliative care (PC) in health care delivery, but priorities for state and federal policy to support PC are unclear and have sometimes engendered controversy. We canvassed experts to shed light on general recommendations for improving PC. ⋯ A qualitative approach of querying experts identified multiple significant challenges to improving and expanding PC, most of which are acknowledged in existing consensus statements. Proposed solutions were more numerous and diffuse than descriptions of the problems, signaling the need for further consensus building around actionable policy, and better understanding of how to advance a PC policy agenda.