ntroducing a palliative care consultation within 3 days of hospital admission is estimated to reduce cost of care for hospitalized adults with life-limiting illness by as much as $4,664 per patient, according to a recently published US study.
The authors of the report, published recently in JAMA Internal Medicine, noted:
These results suggest that palliative care is more effective in changing patterns of care for patients with higher illness burden and that it may be possible for acute care hospitals to reduce costs by expanding palliative care capacity.
The study looked at the care of 133,188 patients in the US. The reduction in cost was larger for patients with cancer than for those with a non-cancer diagnosis and for those with 4 or more comorbidities than for those with 2 or fewer.
The authors were also mindful that this is only one measurement and doesn’t take into other factors such as the cost of living for the patient.
The estimated association of palliative care consultation with hospital costs varies according to baseline clinical factors; prioritizing current staff to patients with a high illness burden and increasing capacity may reduce hospital costs for a population with high policy importance.
The authors cautioned against generalising the results to other countries before considering differences in context, but noted that the general pattern of cost-saving observed in the US is also reported in other countries, and that the challenges of appropriate decision making for individuals with complex illness in acute care settings are universal in nature.
References
Peter May, Charles Normand, J. Brian Cassel, Egidio Del Fabbro, Robert L. Fine, Reagan Menz, Corey A. Morrison, Joan D. Penrod, Chessie Robinson, R. Sean Morrison (2018) Economics of Palliative Care for Hospitalized Adults with Serious Illness: A Meta-analysis, JAMA Intern Med, published online April 30, 2018. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2018.0750.