Impact, challenges and limits of inpatient palliative care consultations - perspectives of requesting and conducting physicians.

Background: Inpatient palliative care consultation (IPCC) teams have been established to improve care for patients with specialist palliative care (PC) needs throughout all hospital departments. The objective is to explore physicians' perceptions on the impact of IPCC, its triggers, challenges and limits, and their suggestions for future service improvements.

Methods: A Qualitative study drawing on semi-structured interviews with 10 PC specialists of an IPCC team and nine IPCC requesting physicians from oncology and non-oncological departments of a university hospital.