Late to Palliate? Inpatient Palliative Care Consultation at an Academic Veterans Affairs Hospital

Despite robust evidence describing the benefits of palliative care consultation (PCC), this service is underutilized. Hospital admission provides an important opportunity to obtain PCC.

We evaluated all inpatients who received PCC at a Veterans Affairs academic hospital from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019. Logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with early versus late PCC, with early defined as >30 days from consult to death and late defined as ≤30 days.

The median time from PCC to death was 37 days. The majority of PCCs were early (58.4%). Of all patients receiving inpatient PCC, 13.2% died that admission. Cardiac (odds ratio = 0.3, 95% CI = 0.11-0.73) and neurological (odds ratio = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.05-0.70) diagnoses were more likely to receive early PCC compared to malignancy. Of the late PCCs receiving first-time consults, 58.9% had at least one admission during the last year.

Many patients are introduced to palliative care services within a month of death. These patients were often admitted during the prior year, presenting a missed opportunity to involve inpatient PCC earlier.