The Effectiveness of Palliative Care Expert-Consult Teams: A pooled analysis

Categories: Research.

Without access to palliative care interventions, patients living with a terminal illness may have uncontrolled symptoms, poor quality of life, and expensive, avoidable hospitalizations. Indeed patients in the last year of life are the most expensive in the healthcare system, costing Canadians an estimated $11 billion, where hospital costs comprise over 70% of end-of-life costs.1,2 Policymakers have invested in home-based interventions, since many patients want to be cared for at home, community care is often less expensive, and hospitals are already overwhelmed. Specifically, they have invested in expert-consult teams (aka specialist palliative care teams) throughout Ontario. However, little is known about the effectiveness of these teams.

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