Hospice Enrollment After Referral to Community-Based, Specialist Palliative Care: Impact of Telephonic Outreach.

CONTEXT: In the U.S., palliative care programs improve access to hospice through enhanced communication and efficiencies in hospice eligibility review and enrollment. For community-based programs, this task may begin with telephone contact.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the incidence and predictors of hospice enrollment following telephonic outreach by a nurse after referral to a community-based, specialist palliative care program.

METHODS: During 2012-2014, 299 consecutive patients who were referred to a palliative care program and subsequently enrolled in hospice provided electronic health record data for a retrospective cohort study. Those who elected hospice after telephonic outreach and before the first palliative care home visit, were compared with those who enrolled in hospice after palliative care visits began, using both bivariate and multivariate analyses.

RESULTS: Mean (SD) age was 74.1 (18.7) years; 60.2% were women, 44.4% were White, 22.5% were Hispanic, 20.9% were Black, and 9.6% were Asian. In total, 177 patients (59.2%) elected hospice following telephonic outreach and 122 (40.8%) enrolled after home visits began. The former group received a mean of 4.5 calls (median = 3.0) before hospice election. In multivariate analysis, hospice enrollment following telephonic outreach alone was associated with hospital or nursing home referral, not married status, and poor performance status (all P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: More than half of patients electing hospice after referral to a palliative care program did so following telephonic outreach alone. Both sociodemographic and clinical characteristics predicted this outcome. Palliative care programs can improve hospice access through initial telephonic outreach by trained professionals.