Screening for End-of-Life in Acute Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Survey
Timothy To1,2,3, Paul Hakendorf3, David C Currow4,5
1Southern Adelaide Palliative Service, Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, AU-SA, Australia.
Background:
Patients are frequently admitted to hospital in the last year of life. Actively recognising patients at this stage gives the opportunity to plan future care.
Methods:
We performed a cross-sectional survey of all acute medical and surgical inpatients at one tertiary hospital. Two simple screening tools, the indicators for a palliative approach and the surprise question identified a group of patients at greatly increased risk of dying over the next year.
Results:
The one-year mortality of the study group was 27%, however was 52% and 65% for those identified at risk by the indicators for a palliative approach and surprise question tools. The surprise question had an area under the receiver operator curve value of .84.
Conclusion:
These screening tools could be used to help clinicians identify hospital inpatients that would benefit from advance care planning and a tailored approach to their care.
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