Background: To provide optimal palliative care (PC) services in the acute setting of the emergency department (ED), it may be beneficial for the consult team to delineate the most commonly requested ED-PC services and understand why ED clinicians currently request palliative care consults (PCC).
Methods: Using a retrospective review of data gathered by the PC team on services and consults we studied patterns of ED-initiated PCC (EDI-PCC) and describe here the use of PC services in an urban tertiary-care-center ED. We then compare these with PC services provided in the traditional in-patient consult setting.
Results and conclusions: EDI-PCC patients are young, likely secondary to traumatic and critical, sudden events. In-hospital mortality rate for EDI-PCC patients is very high (most die early and in the ED setting), signifying a trend for ED clinicians to request PC consults in those who are imminently dying. PC consult teams called to the ED should expect to provide high-priority, time-sensitive services and anticipate a high level of bereavement/emotional support for distraught and unprepared families, with major discussions around end-of-life care.