Rationale: To evaluate factors associated with palliative care consultation (PCC) in an urban public hospital.
Methods: A retrospective chart review of patients who died on inpatient medical services.
Results: Patients with a PCC were more likely to have a "do not resuscitate" (DNR) order at the time of death (p<0.001) and had a decreased likelihood of death in the ICU (p<0.001). Factors associated with PCC in a multivariate analysis included: cancer diagnosis (p=0.01), at least a high school education (p=0.04), older age (p=.003), and birth outside the US (p=0.03).
Conclusion: The increased PCC utilization for immigrants is in contrast to previously reported literature. This increased use may be because access to services in a municipal hospital is not driven by demographic and socioeconomic factors.
Keywords: disparities; end of life; goals of care; inpatient; palliative; urban; utilization.
© The Author(s) 2013.