Inpatient palliative care patients often return to hospital   

Patients discharged from an inpatient palliative care unit with a poor prognosis and limited survival often return to the hospital or emergency department, even though they have supports in place, according to a study in Journal of Palliative Medicine. Colleen Webber, PhD, at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Ontario, Canada, was the lead author for the retrospective cohort study of medical records for 75 patients at one institution. Median survival after discharge was 96 days, and 36% of the patients died in an acute care hospital. Within 30 days of discharge, 13% of the patients were hospitalized, and 23% visited an emergency department. Younger patients, patients with nonmalignant diseases, and patients discharged home or to a retirement home were more likely to seek acute care and die in the hospital.