Fast-tracking palliative care consults: Pilot implementation of National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) palliative care screening and referral guideline.

e19636 Background: The NCCN PC Guideline recommends screening all patients for PC needs at clinically relevant intervals and to call a PC consult when referral criteria (RC) are met. Because most of the care of gastrointestinal oncology (GIO) patients is ambulatory, hospitalization is an appropriate time to rescreen. The aim of this quality improvement project was to evaluate using the guideline on a hospitalist-led GIO inpatient unit of a comprehensive cancer center (CCC). Methods: From 11/1/10 to 1/28/11, inpatient nurses screened patients admitted to one GIO Service on a floor of Memorial Hospital the day after admission. PC consults were automatically performed on those meeting the RC. Definitions were developed to categorize consults as “simple” (manageable by the primary team) or “complex” (requiring a full consult). Results: Of 127 admissions, 104 (87%) were screened (<5 minutes/patient), 64 (63%) met the RC and 35 consults were done on 33 patients: 20M, 13F, median age 60, with upper GI (12), panc...