Trends in utilisation of palliative care services in COVID-19 patients and their impact on hospital resources in the USA: insights from the national inpatient sample.

Objectives: Poor prognosis and lack of effective therapeutic options have made palliative care an integral part of the management of severe COVID-19. However, clinical studies on the role of palliative care in severe COVID-19 patients are lacking. The objective of our study was to evaluate the utility of palliative care in intubated COVID-19 patients and its impact on in-hospital outcomes.

Methods: Rate of palliative care consult, patient-level variables (age, sex, race, income, insurance type), hospital-level variables (region, type, size) and in-hospital outcome variables (mortality, cost, disposition, complications) were recorded.

Results: We retrospectively analysed 263 855 intubated COVID-19 patients using National Inpatient Sample database from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020. 65 325 (24.8%) patients received palliative care consult. Factors associated with an increased rate of palliative care consults included: female gender (p<0.001), older age (p<0.001), Caucasian race (p<0.001), high household income (p<0.001), Medicare insurance (p<0.001), admission to large-teaching hospitals (p<0.001), patients with underlying comorbidities, development of in-hospital complications and the need for intensive care procedures. Patients receiving palliative consults had shorter hospital length of stay (LOS) (p<0.001) and no difference in hospitalisation cost (p=0.15).

Conclusions: Palliative care utilisation rate in intubated COVID-19 patients was reflective of disease severity and disparities in healthcare access. Palliative care may help reduce hospital LOS. Our findings also highlight importance of improving access to palliative care services and its integration into the multidisciplinary management of severe COVID-19 patients.