Journal of Palliative Medicine
Meredith A. MacMartin, Olivia A. Sacks, Andrea M. Austin,Gouri Chakraborti,Elizabeth A. Stedina,Jonathan S. Skinner, Amber E. Barnato
Palliative care units (PCUs) are devoted to intensive management of symptoms and other palliative care needs. We examined the association between opening a PCU and acute care processes at a single U.S. academic medical center.
We retrospectively compared acute care processes for seriously ill patients admitted before and after the opening of a PCU at a single academic medical center. Outcomes included rates of change in code status to do-not-resuscitate (DNR) and comfort measures only (CMO) status, and time to DNR and CMO. We calculated unadjusted and adjusted rates and used logistic regression to assess interaction between care period and palliative care consultation.