Impact of Referring Team Characteristics on Inpatient Palliative Care Consultation Rate at a Comprehensive Cancer Center

Abstract

Background: No prior study addresses the impact of admitting team characteristics on inpatient palliative care (PC) consultation rate in cancer patients. Understanding consultation rate differences among admitting service types may reveal PC access disparities for patients who would benefit from consultation. Aim: To determine the impact of admitting service characteristics (teaching vs. nonteaching and surgical vs. medical) on inpatient PC consultation rates. Methods: A six-month cross-sectional study was performed at an academic comprehensive cancer center. Inpatient PC consultations and follow-up visits were compared to total admissions by admitting service category. Results: Five thousand six hundred ninety-seven admissions resulted in 710 new PC consultations and 2494 follow-up visits. Patients admitted to medical services had highest odds of PC consultation, while data for teaching services were mixed. There was no difference in follow-up visits. Conclusions: Significant differences between medical and surgical service PC consultation rates may indicate specialty PC access disparities solely based on their admitting service.