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Palliative Care Consultation Versus Palliative Care Unit: Which Is Associated With Shorter Terminal Hospitalization Length of Stay Among Patients With Cancer?
Am J Hosp Palliat Care. 2013 Dec 2;
Authors: Alsirafy SA, Abou-Alia AM, Ghanem HM
Abstract
Hospital length of stay (LoS) may be used to assess end-of-life care aggressiveness and health care delivery efficiency. We describe the terminal hospitalization LoS of patients with cancer managed by a hospital-based palliative care (PC) program comprising a palliative care consultation (PCC) service and an inpatient palliative care unit (PCU). A total of 328 in-hospital cancer deaths were divided into 2 groups. The PCU group included patients admitted by the PC team directly to the PCU. The PCC group included patients admitted by other specialties and referred to the PCC team. The LoS of the PCU group was significantly shorter than that of the PCC group (9.9 [±9.4] vs 17.8 [±19.7] days, respectively; P < .001). Direct terminal hospitalization to PCU is not associated with longer LoS among cancer deaths managed by a hospital-based PC service.
PMID: 24301082 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]