Racial Disparities in Utilization of Palliative Care Among Patients Admitted With Advanced Solid Organ Malignancies.

The study used an administrative database, so it could not see clinical details such as why a palliative care consult was requested, when it was refused, or whether the patient already had palliative care before admission. The billing code used to identify palliative care consultation may also capture end-of-life care without a formal palliative care consult, which could overestimate actual consultations. The database cannot distinguish new admissions from readmissions, so consultation counts may be overestimated or underestimated depending on readmission patterns. The study did not measure patient or family attitudes, preferences or choices, which the authors say need further study.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Do not conclude that palliative care use is equitable because the adjusted overall analysis showed no race difference. When patients were separated by death status, black and Hispanic patients discharged alive were less likely to receive consultation than white patients.