Palliative Care in Nursing Homes Cuts Hospital Trips

Early research has suggested that palliative care specialists help patients in hospital or outpatient settings get better control of pain and other symptoms while opting for less intensive care. Now a new study on the effect of palliative care consults in nursing homes finds that the practice is associated with less hospitalization and intensive treatment.

Further, the new study of more than 1,500 people in Rhode Island and North Carolina also finds these benefits come at no net additional cost to Medicare.

“These findings have never been shown in nursing homes,” says gerontologist Susan Miller, a professor at the Brown University School of Public Health. “It’s important that we document this because essentially when people are in the nursing home for a long stay, that’s their final residence. These are people in need of supportive care and expertise in palliative care.”

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