Study shows inpatient palliative care reduces hospital costs and readmissions

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Oct-2014

Contact: Kathryn Ryan kryan@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News @LiebertOnline

New Rochelle, NY, October 15, 2014Palliative care provided in the hospital offers known clinical benefits, and a new study shows that inpatient palliative care can also significantly lower the cost of hospitalization and the rate of readmissions. Further, the study shows the hospital can get the expertise it needs through a collaborative relationship with a community hospice. The results of a comparative study are published in Journal of Palliative Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Palliative Medicine website until November 15, 2014.

In the article "A Hospice-Hospital Partnership: Reducing Hospitalization Costs and 30-Day Readmissions among Seriously Ill Adults (http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/jpm.2013.0612)," John Tangeman, MD, Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD, and Pei Grant, PhD, Center for Hospice and Palliative Care (Cheektowaga, NY), and Carole Rudra, PhD, MPH, Rudra Research (Buffalo, NY), compared cost per hospital admission and readmission rates among patients who received inpatient palliative care to those who did not at two hospitals in western New York.

"Palliative care has been proven to deliver on the value equation," says Charles F. von Gunten, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Palliative Medicine and Clinical Professor of Medicine, Ohio University. "To be successful, every health system will want to maximize its investment in palliative care to deliver the highest quality of care at the lowest cost."

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Journal of Palliative Medicine is the official journal of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) and an official journal of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association

About the Journal

Journal of Palliative Medicine, published monthly in print and online, is an interdisciplinary journal that reports on the clinical, educational, legal, and ethical aspects of care for seriously ill and dying patients. The Journal includes coverage of the latest developments in drug and non-drug treatments for patients with life-threatening diseases including cancer, AIDS, cardiac disease, pulmonary, neurological, and respiratory conditions, and other diseases. The Journal reports on the development of palliative care programs around the United States and the world and on innovations in palliative care education. Tables of content and a sample issue can be viewed on the Journal of Palliative Medicine website.

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Study shows inpatient palliative care reduces hospital costs and readmissions