Katherine R Courtright, Vanessa Madden, Brian Bayes, Marzana Chowdhury, Casey Whitman, Dylan S Small, Michael O Harhay, Suzanne Parra, Elizabeth Cooney-Zingman, Mary Ersek, Gabriel J Escobar, Sarah H Hill, Scott D Halpern
IMPORTANCE: Increasing inpatient palliative care delivery is prioritized, but large-scale, experimental evidence of its effectiveness is lacking. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether ordering palliative care consultation by default for seriously ill hospitalized patients without requiring greater palliative care staffing increased consultations and improved outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A pragmatic, stepped-wedge, cluster randomized trial was conducted among patients 65 years or older with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, dementia, or kidney failure admitted from March 21, 2016, through November 14, 2018, to 11 US hospitals...
January 16, 2024: JAMA