Characterization of aggressive interventions within 30 days of death in lung cancer patients at Smilow Cancer Hospital (SCH).

20 Background: Multiple studies have demonstrated that patients with advanced cancer receive overly aggressive care at the end-of-life. With the goal of ultimately reducing overutilization, we sought to characterize the care we provide and identify if the Rothman Index (RI), a validated EMR tool which displays patients’ clinical condition, could predict those in whom aggressive interventions might be futile. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review on 118 patients with advanced lung cancer who died at SCH in the fiscal year 2012. We extracted: 1. Rates of aggressive interventions including ICU stay, chemotherapy, non-palliative radiation and surgery within 30 days of death; 2. Rate of palliative care (PC) consultation; 3. RI. 4. Readmission rates. Results: 118 lung cancer patients were identified: 88% stage IV, 12% stage III or unstaged. Results are characterized in the Table. Conclusions: Consistent with national trends, utilization of aggressive interventions near the end-of-life is high among...