Clinical significance of palliative care assessment in patients referred for urgent intensive care unit admission: A cohort study

Abstract

Purpose To evaluate clinical characteristics of patients with palliative care (PC) and urgent intensive care unit (ICU) referrals in the same hospital admission. Methods All urgent ICU referrals at an academic, tertiary hospital, and the co-occurrence and timing of PC assessment were retrieved from a prospectively collected database. Results From May 2014 to May 2015, 2476 patients were analyzed and 179 (7%) had co-occurrence of PC assessment and urgent ICU referral in the same hospital admission. Hospital mortality was higher (odds ratio, 8.3; 95% confidence interval, 5.4-12.7) and ICU admission was lower (odds ratio, 0.54; 95% confidence interval, 0.40-0.74) in patients with PC assessment,..