title: Emergency-department-initiated palliative care consults: a descriptive analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To provide optimal palliative care (PC) services in the acute setting of the emergency department (ED), it may be beneficial for the consult team to delineate the most commonly requested ED-PC services and understand why ED clinicians currently request palliative care consults (PCC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Using a retrospective review of data gathered by the PC team on services and consults we studied patterns of ED-initiated PCC (EDI-PCC) and describe here the use of PC services in an urban tertiary-care-center ED. We then compare these with PC services provided in the traditional in-patient consult setting.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  EDI-PCC patients are young, likely secondary to traumatic and critical, sudden events. In-hospital mortality rate for EDI-PCC patients is very high (most die early and in the ED setting), signifying a trend for ED clinicians to request PC consults in those who are imminently dying. PC consult teams called to the ED should expect to provide high-priority, time-sensitive services and anticipate a high level of bereavement/emotional support for distraught and unprepared families, with major discussions around end-of-life care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, University Hospital, Newark, New Jersey 07101, USA. lambasa@umdnj.edu
authors.forename: Sangeeta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lamba
authors.forename: Roxanne
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nagurka
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Walther
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Murphy
mesh_terms: D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010166:Palliative Care; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D019452:Terminally Ill