Abstract
Background: Patients are frequently admitted to hospital in the last year of life. Actively recognising patients at this stage gives the opportunity to plan future care.
Methods: We performed a cross-sectional survey of all acute medical and surgical inpatients at one tertiary hospital. Two simple screening tools, the indicators for a palliative approach and the surprise question identified a group of patients at greatly increased risk of dying over the next year.
Results: The one-year mortality of the study group was 27%, however was 52% and 65% for those identified at risk by the indicators for a palliative approach and surprise question tools. The surprise question had an area under the receiver operator curve value of.84.
Conclusion: These screening tools could be used to help clinicians identify hospital inpatients that would benefit from advance care planning and a tailored approach to their care.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1127-1131 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| Early online date | 9 Jan 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2024 |
Keywords
- acute care
- cross-sectional survey
- last year of life
- surprise question