Default Palliative Care Consultation for Seriously Ill Hospitalized Patients: A Pragmatic Cluster Randomized Trial.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Increasing inpatient palliative care delivery is prioritized, but large-scale, experimental evidence of its effectiveness is lacking.

Objective

To determine whether ordering palliative care consultation by default for seriously ill hospitalized patients without requiring greater palliative care staffing increased consultations and improved outcomes.

Design, setting, and participants

A pragmatic, stepped-wedge, cluster randomized trial was conducted among patients 65 years or older with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia, or kidney failure admitted from March 21, 2016, through November 14, 2018, to 11 US hospitals. Outcome data collection ended on January 31, 2019.

Intervention

Ordering palliative care consultation by default for

SUBMITTER: Courtright KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10792472 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature