Cited by 166Palliative Care and End-of-Life IssuesPalliative and Oncologic CareEthics in medical practice

Early palliative care consultation in the medical ICU: A cluster randomized crossover trial.

Open access
Ma, Jessica, Chi, Stephen, Buettner, Benjamin, Pollard, Katherine, Muir, Monica, Kolekar, Charu, Al-Hammadi, Noor, Chen, Ling +2 more·2019·Critical Care Medicine

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the impact of early triggered palliative care consultation on the outcomes of high-risk ICU patients. Design: Single-center cluster randomized crossover trial. Setting: Two medical ICUs at Barnes Jewish Hospital. Patients: Patients ( n = 199) admitted to the medical ICUs from August 2017 to May 2018 with a positive palliative care screen indicating high risk for morbidity or mortality. Interventions: The medical ICUs were randomized to intervention or usual care followed by washout and crossover, with independent assignment of patients to each ICU at admission. Intervention arm patients received a palliative care consultation from an interprofessional team led by board-certified palliative care providers within 48 hours of ICU admission. Measurements and Main Results: Ninety-seven patients (48.7%) were assigned to the intervention and 102 (51.3%) to usual care. Transition to do-not-resuscitate/do-not-intubate occurred earlier and significantly more often in the intervention group than the control group (50.5% vs 23.4%; p < 0.0001). The intervention group had significantly more transfers to hospice care (18.6% vs 4.9%; p < 0.01) with fewer ventilator days (median 4 vs 6 d; p < 0.05), tracheostomies performed (1% vs 7.8%; p < 0.05), and postdischarge emergency department visits and/or readmissions (17.3% vs 38.9%; p < 0.01). Although total operating cost was not significantly different, medical ICU ( p < 0.01) and pharmacy ( p < 0.05) operating costs were significantly lower in the intervention group. There was no significant difference in ICU length of stay (median 5 vs 5.5 d), hospital length of stay (median 10 vs 11 d), in-hospital mortality (22.6% vs 29.4%), or 30-day mortality between groups (35.1% vs 36.3%) ( p > 0.05). Conclusions: Early triggered palliative care consultation was associated with greater transition to do-not-resuscitate/do-not-intubate and to hospice care, as well as decreased ICU and post-ICU healthcare resource utilization. Our study suggests that routine palliative care consultation may positively impact the care of high risk, critically ill patients.

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  • Prone position was associated with an increase in pressure sores.

    “However, prone position was associated with an increase in pressure sores (RR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.05-1.41)(460, 461), and some patients have contraindications to the prone position (460, 461).”

    From Surviving Sepsis Campaign: International Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock 2021. (2021) · cites this paper as [461]

    The Methods (Trial Outcomes; page unavailable) lists palliative-care outcomes, and the Results report code-status changes, hospice transfers, and resource use. Searches for prone positioning, pressure sores or ulcers, and the stated risk ratio found no passage addressing the claim in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.77)

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  • Palliative care interventions have been studied in ICU patients, but not specifically in patients with sepsis.

    “Studies have evaluated palliative care interventions in the ICU but not specifically in patients with sepsis [543, 545–548].”
  • Palliative care interventions had no significant impact on family satisfaction, ICU length of stay, hospital length of stay, or mortality.

    “Palliative care interventions had no significant impact on family satisfaction with care, ICU length of stay [543, 545–548], hospital length of stay [543, 545, 548], or mortality [543, 545, 548].”

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Authors
Ma, J., Chi, S., Buettner, B., Pollard, K., Muir, M., Kolekar, C., Al-Hammadi, N., Chen, L., Kollef, M., & Dans, M.
Affiliations
  • Duke University (US)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (US)
Venue
Critical Care Medicine
Published
2019-12
Volume
47
Issue
12
Pages
1707-1715
ISSN
0090-3493 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2980544752
Cited by
166
References
49
Citations by year
2026: 23 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 1
FWCI
14.27
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Critical Care Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (UL1TR002345)
  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative and Oncologic Care
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Ethics in medical practice
Keywords
medical intensive care unit, do-not-resuscitate orders, do-not-intubate orders, healthcare resource utilization, ventilator days, tracheostomy, post-discharge readmission, in-hospital mortality, operating costs, palliative care screening, end-of-life care
MeSH terms
Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Female, Humans, Intensive Care Units, Male, Middle Aged, Palliative Care, Prospective Studies, Referral and Consultation, Critical Illness, Cross-Over Studies, Early Medical Intervention

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