R. Sean Morrison, MD
Palliative care, which focuses on improving quality of life and reducing suffering for people with serious illness and their families, is associated with shorter hospital stays and lower costs, according to a study published in April 2018 in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine. The study—the largest of its kind—was conducted by the National Palliative Care Research Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Trinity College Dublin.
The investigation pooled data from six prior studies involving more than 130,000 adults admitted to hospitals in the United States between 2001 and 2015; of these patients, 3.6 percent received a palliative care consultation in addition to their other hospital care. It found that when palliative care was added to patients’ routine care, hospitals saved an average of $4,251 per stay for cancer patients and $2,105 for those with non-cancer diagnoses. The savings were greatest for patients with the highest number of co-existing illnesses.
Unlike hospice care, palliative care can be provided early in the course of illness, along with life-prolonging therapies. Palliative care has seen a steady rise during the past 30 years, but research suggests that there is much room for growth, says study coauthor R. Sean Morrison, MD, the Ellen and Howard C. Katz Chair of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine.
“The potential to reduce the suffering of millions of Americans is enormous,” Dr. Morrison says. “This study proves that better care can go hand in hand with a better bottom line.”