Improving Palliative Care Delivery in the Medical Intensive Care Unit: A Quality Improvement Project (QI629)

Abstract

Results. 690 patients met inclusion criteria. The median time from WLST orders to death was 3.8 hours. Of 690 patients, 312 (45%) received palliative consultation and median time was 3.9 hours; 378 (55%) without palliative consultation had median time of 3.6 hours (not statistically significantly different). There was no statistically significant difference in time from WLST orders to death between the three mutually exclusive groups: orders by palliative provider and palliative consult, orders by nonpalliative provider and palliative consult, and orders by nonpalliative provider and no palliative consult.