Creating a Dedicated Palliative Care Team for ICU Spanish Speaking Patients in Response to COVID-19

The Latinx population faced higher rates of infection and severe illness during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in an increased need for palliative care services.

We describe the creation and impact of a formal palliative care initiative developed for seriously ill, Spanish-speaking patients during the COVID-19 pandemic at a tertiary care academic medical center.

Patients were enrolled in the Spanish Palliative Care Initiative during a two-month period starting in April 2020. Selected patients were longitudinally followed by a rotating team of Spanish-speaking palliative care clinicians. Following the intervention, a retrospective chart review was conducted to evaluate the impact of the program.

We enrolled 22 patients. The most frequent palliative care task completed during the initial visit was information giving (77%) and during follow-up visits were goals of care discussion (59%) and coping support (59%). Fifteen patients (68%) had a change in code status and 4 patients (18%) were discharged to hospice.

The creation of a focused clinical program targeting a historically marginalized population offered opportunity for early palliative care intervention in clinical care for Spanish-speaking patients. This underscores the need for Spanish-language concordant palliative care to improve serious illness care, and end-of-life care, by providing continuity of care, spiritual care, and ICU team support.