Identification of In-hospital Patients in Need of Palliative Care Using a New Simplified Screening Tool

Overview

Every day many patients affected by chronic life-limiting illnesses are admitted into Internal Medicine wards, coming from the Emergency Department. Many studies suggest that providing palliative care to these patients may improve their end-of-life care while reducing costs by minimizing futile treatments and unwanted intensive care unit admissions. Consequently, there is a strong need for acute care hospitals to more vigorously identify patients entering the final phase of their lives as well as their specific care needs. In a previous study the investigators screened for need of palliative care patients affected by progressive chronic diseases by means of a tool, based on the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation, and Intensive Care - SIAARTI - position paper reporting criteria for patients with end-stage chronic organ failures, and on the specific clinical indicators elaborated by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) for patients with locally advanced/metastatic cancer. In a further pilot study, the investigators compared the outcomes of PC patients depending on whether the palliative care team evaluated such patients only if requested by the physician staff or routinely, irrespectively of a specific request, finding a significant increase of discharges after the activation of an appropriate PC service or scheduled PC ambulatory visit. In the present study the investigators enroll chronically ill patients admitted to an Internal Medicine Unit from the Emergency Department, to be screened for palliative care need, using the previously cited SIAARTI/NCCN screening tool (Extended Screening Tool - EST), or using a Simplified Screening Tool (SST), derived from the first instrument, which preliminary showed a superimposable efficacy. This latter tool has advantages related to much more shortness and therefore simplicity in the administration to a seriously ill patient and is much less time consuming, allowing the physician to use it routinely. The aim of the study is to verify the accuracy of the SST in identifying chronically ill patients in need of a PC approach, in comparison to the SIAARTI/NCCN tool (EST). If the SST would show good accuracy, an easily manageable tool for the assessment of PC needs in chronically ill patients would be available for the daily routine.

Due to population aging and advances in medicine and public health, the prevalence of people affected by progressive, chronic, life-limiting diseases is increasing. Many studies documented that patients with progressive chronic diseases received care that was more aimed at the prolongation of life than palliation of symptoms during their last 6-12 months of life, as well as frequent hospitalizations. These data suggested that providing palliative care (PC) to these patients may improve their end-of-life care while reducing costs by minimizing futile treatments and unwanted ICU care. Consequently, there is a strong need for acute care hospitals to more vigorously identify patients entering the final phase of their lives as well as their specific care needs. Historically, Hospice and PC services have focused on the needs of cancer patients. However, the majority of patients needing PC worldwide suffer from life-limiting non-cancer illnesses, like cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), renal failure, cirrhosis of the liver, Alzheimer's and other dementias, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, HIV/AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes. The main illnesses requiring PC are cardiovascular diseases (38%), cancer (34%), and COPD (10%). In order to correctly identify such patients, adequate screening tools are needed. In a previous study, the investigators employed for this aim a screening tool derived from the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation, and Intensive Care (SIAARTI) position paper based on expert panel opinions reporting criteria to identify patients with end-stage chronic organ failures. For cancer patients, the screening was done according to specific clinical indicators elaborated by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). A Simplified Screening Tool was also created, in order to make available an easier instrument for the same aim. The SIAARTI/NCCN screening tool (Extended Screening Tool - EST) is, in fact, an instrument validated by many scientific societies, but it is very articulated and its compilation is too much time-consuming. The Simplified Screening Tool (SST) has been created through a statistical process in order to include all the critical variables, with the advantage of being shorter and therefore easier to administer in a routinely use. The aim of the current study is to demonstrate that the SST has accuracy comparable to that of the SIAARTI/NCCN tool in identifying chronically ill patients in need of a PC approach, thus making available an easily manageable tool for the assessment of PC needs in chronically ill patients. In order to do this, every enrolled patient will be administered both the SST and the SIAARTI/NCCN tool, in a randomized sequence. After completion of the enrollment and data collection, an appropriate statistical methodology will be employed for the comparison between the established SIAARTI/NCCN tool and the SST.