Right now, I notice that some patients get palliative care too late in their stay at the hospital and sometimes pass away a day later after the consult was put in. We can do better than that to ensure patients are living the way they want to!!
I came across an article in a critical care newsletter called Estimates of the Need for Palliative Care Consultation across United States Intensive Care Units Using a Trigger-based Model. It said 1 in 7 patients need palliative care and that there are 5 triggers that indicate the patient has a poor prognosis and the healthcare team should put in a consult. It will give the patient and the family members more support and help guide them through difficult decisions. Here are the 5 triggers:
- ICU admission after hospital length of stay of at least 10 days
- failure of three or more organ systems
- stage IV malignancy
- status after cardiac arrest
- intracerebral hemorrhage requiring mechanical ventilation