Objectives: Early palliative medicine consult in the ICU can significantly improve outcomes in high-risk patients. We describe a pilot study of including a recommendation for palliative medicine consult in the ICU morning huddle.
Design: A prospective, observational, quality improvement study.
Patients And Setting: Adult patients (age above 18 yr) admitted with cardiac arrest, stage IV cancer, admission from a long-term acute care facility, and circulatory shock on mechanical ventilation to the medical ICU.
Interventions: We aim to assess the effect of an early palliative medicine consultation in selected high-risk patients on change in code status, referral to hospice, tracheostomy, and or percutaneous gastrostomy tube placement.
Measurements And Main Results: There were 83 patients who triggered an early palliative medicine consult. Palliative medicine consultation occurred in 44 patients (53%); 23 patients (28%) had a palliative medicine consult within the first 48 hours, 21 (25%) had a palliative medicine consult afterwards. There was a significantly higher number of patients who de-escalated their code status in the palliative medicine consult group compared with the no palliative medicine consult group (63.6% vs 7.7%); however, the number was higher in the late palliative medicine consult group (71.4% vs 56.5%). There were more patients referred to hospice in the palliative medicine consult group. No difference in length of stay was observed.
Conclusions: Early palliative medicine consultation in the daily ICU morning huddle is achievable, can produce a palliative medicine consultation in most cases, and results in a significant change in code status toward less aggressive measures.
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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8238322 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/CCE.0000000000000459 | DOI Listing |
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