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This report describes an evaluation of the benefits of the inpatient palliative
care consultation service at Montefiore Medical Center, New York, in its preliminary
phase. The researchers evaluated data regarding 592 patients consulted by the
palliative care service between November 2000 through March 2002. Standardized
medical record reviews indicated that over 90% of interventions recommended
by the palliative care team were accepted and acted on by the primary team;
audit of the medical records of 368 patients confirmed that pain and other symptoms
improved in 87% of patients after palliative care intervention. Ninety-five
percent of respondents to a telephone survey of family caregivers said that
they were likely to recommend the service. High levels of referring provider
satisfaction were recorded using a provider satisfaction survey, and there was
an increase in the referral rate for palliative care consultation from 2% to
21% of all patients dying at the medical center during the study. There were
also significant reductions in charges for ancillary tests and ventilator charges
after palliative care consultation and significant savings in hospital charges.
Length of stay was significantly reduced for patients referred for hospice.
This report suggests efficacy of the palliative care service in terms of patient
outcomes, provider satisfaction, caregiver satisfaction, and cost savings. O'mahony
S, Blank AE, Zallman L, Selwyn PA. Adapted from J Palliat Med. 2005 Oct;8(5):1033-9.
PMID 16238516
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=16238516&query_hl=37
Credit: PubMed, developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information
(NCBI) at the
National Library of Medicine (NLM).
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