Palliative Care

Phone: 747-4462 (voicemail); only available during the week

Additionally, you MUST enter an order in Epic for a palliative care consult. If the consult is not urgent, feel free to just place Epic consult with phone number to be reached in notes section.

It is reasonable to consider a Palliative Care consult in the following situations:

  1. Recommendations are desired regarding appropriate treatments:
  2. The patient’s family requests a Palliative Care consult.
  3. The ICU or Surgical service desires assistance in managing pain, anxiety, dyspnea, nausea, or other problems contributing to the patient discomfort or dissatisfaction.
  1. Goals of therapy are unclear:
  2. Caregivers question the utility of continuing maximum medical therapy to extend the patient’s life.
  3. Most caregivers believe the patient is unlikely to survive his or her SICU stay.
  4. The patient has already had a prolonged stay in the SICU.

iii. There have been repeated admissions for the same or similar medical problems during the same hospitalization.

  1. The patient’s mental status is markedly impaired, and there is a significant likelihood that the patient will not return to his or her premorbid status.
  2. There is disagreement among caregivers, between the family and caregivers, or among family members as to what is appropriate therapy for the patient.
  3. The patient’s advance directives seem contrary to the level of care currently being given.
  4. The patient seems unlikely to return to his or her premorbid capacities with regard to activities of daily living, e.g.
  5. The patient has expressed a reluctance to live in a debilitated state.
  6. The patient has stated that he or she would not want to burden his or her family by being unable to live independently.

iii. The patient has stated that he or she would not be willing to live in a long term care facility for a prolonged amount of time.

  1. Assistance in determining hospice eligibility (if family has decided they would like to engage hospice care, you can consult hospice directly by placing a Epic order for “IP Consult to Hospice”Additionally, a hospice consultation is entered automatically with the comfort care order set.

This is not an all-inclusive list, but simply provides examples as to when a Palliative Care consult should be considered. Palliative Care consults should only be obtained after notifying and receiving assent from the SICU attending and the surgical service.