Enhancing Provider Knowledge and Patient Screening for Palliative Care Needs in Chronic Multimorbid Patients Receiving Home-Based Primary Care

What is it about?

We added a screening tool to the medical assessment of home-based primary care patients through the VA, in an attempt to move palliative care discussions "upstream", so that discussions about palliative needs could occur more regularly and earlier, thus improving patient quality of life without adding burden to the medical team through extra consults.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Palliative Performance Scale implementation added little burden on nurses and triggered a discussion in 51 flagged patients. The tool successfully identified 75% of patients who died or were discharged. Screening was systematic and consistent and resulted in targeted discussions about PC needs without generating additional burden on our PC consult service. This model shows promise for enhancing collaborative patient care and access to PC.