Introduction: Early integrated palliative care is recommended in patients with incurable disease. Despite their development, hospital-based palliative care teams (PCT) are introduced late in the course of standard oncology care. The objective of this study is to describe the activity of an academic hospital-based PCT, using a standard format, which integrates indicators of early introduction and quality of end of life care, thus allowing a systematic analysis of its practice.
Methods: The annual activity of the PCT is described from 2007 to 2012. Data are collected for each patient prospectively by the team: reasons for referral and activities of PCT, performance status and chemotherapy at the time of first referral, visit to emergency and admission to ICU.
Results: The number of patients referred to the PCT increased from 337 patients in 2007 to 539 in 2012, among whom 90% were cancer patients, 84% at metastatic stage. Relief of symptoms was the most frequent reason for referral. In 2012, 280 (64%) patients were receiving chemotherapy and 41% had a PS≤2 at the time of first referral. Half patients died each year (270 in 2012); 17% of these received chemotherapy in their last 14 days of life, 3% visited emergency room twice and 13% were admitted in ICU, once during their last month of life, 48% died in hospice or at home.
Conclusion: The use of a standard format to describe the activity of hospital-based PCTs, the timing of their introduction and the quality of care is feasible. The generalization of this format for monitoring to assess the curative medicine interface/palliative could be a lever for improving the integration of palliative care.
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