Table 3.

Patient-level outcomes after referral to specialty palliative care

Outcomes	Liver Disease	Cancer	P value
AD completed during PC consultation	n = 4,065	n = 37,964
No. (%)	142 (3.5)	1,375(3.6)	0.7
POLST completed during PC consultation	n = 4,064	n = 37,955
No. (%)	526 (12.9)	4,724 (12.4)	0.4
Symptom improvement from 1st to 2nd assessment, No. (%)*
Pain	228 (64.9)	5,184(68.7)	0.1
Anxiety	66 (65.3)	1,516(67.9)	0.6
Nausea	33 (86.8)	1,259 (78.7)	0.2
Dyspnea	37 (62.7)	935 (65.9)	0.6
In-hospital death	n = 4,212	n = 39,073
No. (%)	1,179(28.0)	6,567(16.8)	<0.0001
Discharge location, No. (%)	n = 2,946	n = 31,777	<0.0001
Home	1,432(48.6)	20,557 (64.7)
Long-term acute care hospital/Extended care facility	609 (20.7)	4,816(15.2)
Hospital inpatient (PC team signed-off prior to discharge)	456(15.5)	3,246 (10.2)
Other**	449(15.2)	3,159(9.9)
Services arranged for patients discharged home, No. (%)	n= 1,383	n= 19,588
Hospice	584 (42.2)	7,565 (38.6)	0.008
Clinic-based PC	41 (3.0)	2,362(12.1)	<0.0001
Home-based PC	65 (4.7)	1,380(7.1)	0.001
Home health care	321 (23.2)	4,845 (24.8)	0.2
No services	3,878(19.8)	368 (26.6)	<0.0001

^*Includes patients who reported moderate to severe symptoms at the initial PC assessment who reported symptom improvement by at least one level of severity at the second assessment occurring within 72 hours of the initial assessment.

^**“Other” consists of non-hospital inpatient setting, residential care, respite/shelter. Abbreviations: AD, advance directive; PC, palliative care; POLST, physician orders for life-sustaining treatment