All Entries Tagged With: "palliative care"
Hospitalists and palliative care
Hospitalists are well positioned to take the lead in emerging palliative programs, according to an article last month in Hospitalist News. Studies have proven that palliative programs are a rising specialty and can improve patient satisfaction. The challenge is demonstrating real returns to hospital administrators for investment in hospitalist-led palliative programs. Nevertheless, palliative care patients had less lower net lab and ICU costs with savings of nearly $1,696 per admission of discharged patients and savings of $4,908 for patients that died, according to the article.
CAPC grades hospitals on palliative care
The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) and National Palliative Care Research Center released a state-by-state report card last week, grading the level of patient and physician access to palliative programs—a specialty that aims to improve quality of life for those with serious and chronic illness and their family members. The study examined patient access to services in hospitals and board-certified palliative medicine physicians, as well as medical student access to clinical training and physician access to specialty-level training for palliative medicine.
Among the top nationally ranked states are Vermont, Montana, and New Hampshire. Among the lowest scoring states are Oklahoma, Alabama, and Mississippi that each earned an “F.”
The study also found that in states with such programs, patients spend fewer days in intensive care during the last six months of life and are less likely to die in the hospital.
More than half of today’s U.S. hospitals with fifty or more beds include a palliative care program, according to a CAPC press release.
Palliative care programs save hospitals money
Hospitals saved $279-$374 a day on patients with palliative care programs, according to a new study by the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) and National Palliative Care Research Center. Palliative care, a subspecialty to improve quality of life, responds to an increasing aging population with serious illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, and kidney failure.
The study, “Cost Savings Associated with U.S. Hospital Palliative Care Consultation Programs,” published in the Sept. 8 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, evaluated nearly 3000 patients at eight hospitals and found that hospitals saved $1700-$4900 per admission of a palliative care patient. For an entire hospital, this translates to savings in pharmacy, lab, and intensive care costs that total $1.3 million for a 300-bed community hospital or $2.5 million for the average academic medical center.
Since 2006, more than 41% hospitals employ a palliative care program, according to a CAPC press release this week.
