Inpatient Palliative Care Consult: A Marker for High Risk of Readmission or Death in Discharged Oncology Inpatients

Background: Emergency department visits or readmission to hospital are common particularly among those with advanced illness. Little prospective data exist on early outcomes specifically for patients seen by a palliative care consult service during their acute care admission, who are subsequently discharged home. Methods: This study followed 62 oncology patients who had had a palliative care consult during their admission to acute care with weekly phone calls postdischarge for 4 weeks. Events recorded included death, readmission, emergency department visits, and admission to a palliative care unit. Results: By the end of the study, 32 (52%) of 62 had had at least 1 event, (readmission, emergency department visit, or death), with the majority of these occurring in the first 2 weeks postdischarge. The overall 4-week death rate was 14 (22.6%) of 62. Conclusions: These data suggest that the need for a palliative care consult identifies inpatients at very high risk for early deterioration and underlines the critical importance of advance care planning/goals-of-care discussions by the oncology and palliative care teams to ensure patients and families understand their disease process and have the opportunity to direct their care decisions.