National Trends in Palliative Care Use for Surgical Patients on Mechanical Ventilation
In a study published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, Kshitij Chatterjee, MD, et al. concluded that palliative care utilization among surgical patients requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation (MV) increased from 5.7% in 2009, to 11.0% in 2013. Additionally, the authors found that palliative care utilization is associated with shorter hospital length of stays when discharged to short or long term care facilities.