Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar;69(3):e29391.
doi: 10.1002/pbc.29391. Epub 2021 Oct 4.

Palliative care is not associated with decreased intensity of care: Results of a chart review from a large children's hospital

Laura K Sedig  1 , Jessica L Spruit  1   2 , Jessica Southwell  3 , Trisha K Paul  4 , Melissa K Cousino  5 , Harlan McCaffery  6 , Kenneth Pituch  7 , Raymond Hutchinson  1
Affiliations

Palliative care is not associated with decreased intensity of care: Results of a chart review from a large children's hospital

Laura K Sedig et al. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Palliative care is an important component of pediatric oncology care, especially for children who will not be cured of their disease. However, barriers remain to integration of this service. One barrier is the perception that it indicates "giving up." This study examined if palliative care involvement was associated with a decreased intensity of care at the end of life for children with malignancy at a large academic center with a well-established palliative care program.

Procedure: This is a retrospective chart review that measured intensity of care as the number of emergency department visits, hospital days, and intensive care unit days in the last one and three months of life. The data were compared for patients with and without palliative care involvement and with and without hospice involvement.

Results: Palliative involvement was not associated with a decrease in the intensity of care in the last three months of life. Hospice care was associated with a decreased intensity of care. These results held true in analyses adjusted for age at death, gender, and type of malignancy.

Conclusions: These data can reassure patients, families, and providers that palliative involvement does not necessitate decreased intensity of care. Patients and families often choose hospice care to decrease the amount of time spent at the hospital and it was associated with meeting that goal.

Keywords: hospice; oncology; palliative care; treatment intensity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

REFERENCES

    1. Weaver MS, Heinze KE, Kelly KP, et al. Palliative care as a standard of care in pediatric oncology. Pediatr. Blood Cancer. 2015;62(Suppl 5):S829-S833.
    1. Wolfe J, Hammel JF, Edwards KE et al. Easing of suffering in children with cancer at the end of life: is care changing? J Clin Oncol. 2008;26(10):1717-1723.
    1. World Health Organization. WHO Definition of Palliative Care. http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition. Accessed July 20, 2020.
    1. Feudtner CZ, W. Faerber, J. Dai, D. Feinstein J. Appendix F, Pediatric End-of-Life and Palliative Care: Epidemiology and Health Service Use. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2015.
    1. Section on hospice and palliative medicine and committee on hospital care. Pediatric palliative care and hospice care commitments, guidelines, and recommendations. Pediatrics. 2013;132(5): 966-972.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources