Availability of Palliative Care in Long-Term Acute Care Hospitals.
Nathan Sumarsono, Rebecca L Sudore, Alexander K Smith and 3 others
PMID 33965406WHAT IT FOUND
Only 73 of 205 US long-term acute care hospitals answering a 2016 survey reported a palliative care program.
California had 1 of 24. Do not assume specialty palliative care is available for these patients.
Key findings
01Of 205 US LTACHs that responded to the 2016 AHA survey, 73 (35.6%) reported having a palliative care program.
02In the California secondary analysis, only 1 of 24 LTACHs reported a palliative care program, consisting of one social worker and one chaplain.
0356 of 132 LTACHs without a palliative care program were in regions with the highest 3 deciles of palliative care physician capacity.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only 205 of 405 LTACHs responded to the national survey, and non-respondents were more often for-profit, which may make the reported 35.6% overestimate true availability. The study used self-reported program availability and different survey definitions, and the California comparison found a large discrepancy between AHA and OSHPD reports. It measured specialty palliative care programs, not primary palliative care delivered by non-specialists, so unmet needs and actual care may differ. The national data lacked detailed staffing composition, and no California LTACH reported employing a palliative care physician. The data are from 2016 and may not reflect current availability.
Declared interests
The paper is supported by NIH extramural and non-U.S. government research funding; the authors declared no competing interests.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read 35.6% as the true availability for all US LTACHs. Only 205 of 405 hospitals responded, and the California state data with full response found only 1 of 24 LTACHs had a reported program.