Implementation of the ID-PALL Assessment Tool for Palliative Care Needs: A Feasibility and Prevalence Study in a Tertiary Hospital.

Background: Identifying patients who require palliative care is a major public health concern. ID-PALL is the first screening instrument developed and validated to differentiate between patients in need of general versus specialized palliative care.

Objectives: This study aimed to (1) evaluate user satisfaction and the facilitators and barriers for ID-PALL use and (2) assess the prevalence of patients who require palliative care.

Design: A mixed methods study with an explanatory sequential design.

Setting/subjects: Over a six-month period, patients admitted to two internal medicine wards of a Swiss tertiary hospital were screened by nurses and physicians with ID-PALL, two to three days after hospitalization. Nurses and physicians completed a questionnaire and participated in focus groups.

Results: Out of 969 patients, ID-PALL was completed for 420 (43.3%). Sixty percent of patients assessed needed general palliative care and 26.7% specialized palliative care. From the questionnaire and focus groups, five subthemes were identified concerning facilitators and barriers: organization, knowledge, collaboration, meaning, and characteristics of the instrument. ID-PALL was recognized as an easy-to-use and helpful instrument that facilitates discussion between health care professionals about palliative care. The difficulties in using ID-PALL in nurse-physician collaboration and the paucity of referrals to the palliative care team were highlighted.

Conclusions: ID-PALL helped to identify a very high prevalence of palliative care needs among internal medicine patients in a tertiary hospital setting. Although regarded as helpful and easy to use, challenges remain concerning interprofessional implementation and inclusion of palliative care specialists, which may be met by automatic referrals in case of specialist needs.