Characteristics of Outreach patients that received end-of-life counseling

Approximately 20 to 30% of ICU patients are palliated in the ICU. Many of these patients have not had goals of care discussions prior to being admitted to the ICU. Several of these patients may have prolonged courses that can cause anguish for patients and their families and may have been prevented if goals of care discussions occurred earlier. There has been increasing evidence that palliative care involvement in critical care improves outcomes such as quality of end-of-life care [1], decreased length of stay [2] and better pain and symptom management [3]. No studies have looked at medical emergency teams/Outreach with respect to palliative care and end-of-life care. We performed a retrospective descriptive study looking at the characteristics of Outreach patients who received end-of-life counseling (EOLC).