Type of Intensive Care Unit Matters: Variations in Palliative Care for Critically Ill Patients with Chronic,Life-Limiting Illness

Abstract

Background:

It is not clear whether use of specialty palliative care consults and “comfort measures only” (CMO) order sets differ by type of intensive care unit (ICU). A better understanding of palliative care provided to these patients may help address heterogeneity of care across ICU types.

Objectives:

Examine utilization of specialty palliative care consultation and CMO order sets across several different ICU types in a multihospital academic health care system.

Design:

Retrospective cohort study using Washington State death certificates and data from the electronic health record.

Setting/Subjects:

Adults with a chronic medical illness who died in an ICU at one of two hospitals from July 2013 through December 2018. Five ICU types were identified by patient population and attending physician specialty.

Measurements:

Documentation of a specialty palliative care consult during a patient's terminal ICU stay and a CMO order set at time of death.

Results:

For 2706 eligible decedents, ICU type was significantly associated with odds of palliative care consultation (p < 0.001) as well as presence of CMO order set at time of death (p < 0.001). Compared with medical ICUs, odds of palliative care consultation were highest in the cardiothoracic ICU and trauma ICU. Odds of CMO order set in place at time of death were highest in the neurology/neurosurgical ICU.

Conclusion:

Utilization of specialty palliative care consultations and CMO order sets varies across types of ICUs. Examining this variability within institutions may provide an opportunity to improve end-of-life care for patients with chronic, life-limiting illnesses who die in the ICU.

Introduction

Patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with an underlying chronic, life-limiting illness are at a relatively high risk of death, and many have substantial palliative care needs.¹ These palliative care needs may be addressed by ICU clinicians providing primary palliative care, by palliative care clinicians providing specialty palliative care, or by some combination thereof.² Although the role of specialty palliative care has been well established during the past decade, with consultations occurring earlier in the trajectory of a patient's illness and for a broader set of diagnoses,^3–5 it is unclear how patterns of specialty palliative care utilization have evolved in the critical care environment. Although different ICU services may have different cultural practices around decision making at the end of life,⁶ the need for specialty palliative care has been recognized in both medical ICUs (MICUs) and surgical ICUs (SICUs).^7–10 There is limited literature examining variability in end-of-life decision making and patterns of utilization for palliative care consultation by type of ICU service.^6,11–13 Variability in involvement of specialty palliative care in the ICU may be problematic if it results in significant differences in the quality of care provided, particularly at the end of life.

In addition to the increasing use of specialty palliative care consultations, there has also been growing recognition that aggressive resuscitative measures are not appropriate or desired by many seriously ill patients nearing the end of life.^14–16 Differences in the quality of primary palliative care (palliative care provided by clinicians who are not palliative care specialists) and the willingness to involve specialty palliative care may influence the application of intensive interventions at the end of life.¹⁷ During the past decade, efforts to improve the quality of palliative and end-of-life care in the ICU have included implementation of specific order sets related to withdrawing or withholding of life-sustaining treatments,^18–20 often referred to as “comfort measures only” (CMO) order sets. There is a paucity of literature on the frequency of use of these order sets as well as on variability in their use across types of ICUs.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study with the objective of examining the variability in utilization of specialty palliative care consults and CMO order sets between several different ICU types in a multihospital academic health care system. To reduce patient heterogeneity, our patient population was composed of chronically ill patients who died during their ICU stay.

Methods

Setting and study population

The study population consisted of adult patients (age 18 years and older) with a chronic medical illness who died in Washington State from July 2013 through December 2018 in an ICU at University of Washington Medical Center (UWMC) or Harborview Medical Center (HMC). These patients were identified by using data from Washington State Death Certificates and from UW Medicine electronic health records (EHR). Chronic medical illness was defined by documentation in the EHR of the presence of at least one of the nine Dartmouth Atlas chronic conditions during the 24 months before death. These conditions are cancers with poor prognosis (primary malignancies with poor prognoses, leukemias, and metastatic disease), chronic lung disease, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, chronic renal failure, severe chronic liver disease, diabetes with end-organ damage, and dementia.²¹ The presence of a chronic medical condition was based on ICD-10 codes abstracted from the EHR (see Supplementary Appendix SA1 for a complete list of ICD-10 codes). Location of death was determined by EHR designation of the patient's physical location in an ICU bed in one of the two designated hospitals at the time of death. ICU type was determined by the primary service listed in the EHR at the time of death. To focus on patients who were most appropriate for new palliative care consults during their terminal ICU stay, we excluded 58 patients who had been seen by specialty palliative care clinicians before their ICU admission. University of Washington affiliated hospitals have an electronic order set titled “Comfort Measures Only,” which can be used when the care team, family, and patient have made the decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining measures and instead focus on optimizing comfort during a patient's last days. Widespread EHR documentation of this order set began in July 2013, thereby establishing the start of the study period. The study period ended on December 31, 2018—the last date for which death certificates were available at the time of analyses. The university institutional review board assessed this study as not involving human subjects, because all patients were deceased, and a waiver of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) consent was approved, as required by Washington State law.

The UWMC is a quaternary care center for the surrounding regions and has 479 acute care beds and 79 intensive care beds. The adult ICUs at UWMC include a MICU (which also treats neurology patients), a SICU, a cardiac ICU (CCU), a cardiothoracic ICU (CT ICU), and an oncology/bone marrow transplant ICU (BMT ICU). HMC is the county safety-net hospital that is operated by the University of Washington. It is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in Washington State and serves five surrounding states. HMC has 413 acute care beds and 89 intensive care beds. The adult ICUs present at HMC and included in this study are a trauma/surgical ICU (TICU), a neurology/neurosurgery ICU (NICU), a MICU, and a CCU. Table 1 lists the specialties of the attending physicians who staff each ICU at each institution.

Table 1.

Intensive Care Units and Physician Specialties by Study Site

UW Medicine study sites	ICU type	Specialty of staffing attending physicians
UWMC-M	MICU	Pulmonary/critical care
	BMT ICU	Pulmonary/critical care
	SICU	Anesthesia/critical care, pulmonary/critical care
	CCU	Cardiology
	CT ICU	Anesthesia/critical care, cardiothoracic surgery, emergency/critical care
HMC	TICU	Anesthesia/critical care, emergency/critical care, trauma surgery, pulmonary/critical care
	NICU	Anesthesia/critical care, emergency/critical care, neurology/critical care, pulmonary/critical care
	MICU	Pulmonary/critical care
	CCU	Cardiology (with ventilator management done by Pulmonary Consult Team)

BMT ICU, bone marrow transplant intensive care unit; CCU, cardiac intensive care unit; CT ICU, cardiothoracic intensive care unit; HMC, Harborview Medical Center; ICU, intensive care unit; MICU, medical intensive care unit; NICU, neurologic intensive care unit; SICU, surgical intensive care unit; TICU, trauma/surgical intensive care unit; UWMC-M, University of Washington Medical Center—Montlake.

Variables

Our outcomes included EHR documentation of a new specialty palliative care consult during a patient's terminal ICU stay and documentation of a “Comfort Measures Only” order set by the time of death. The predictor was ICU type, grouped into categories based on patient population and the specialties of attending physicians, which resulted in five categories across the seven ICUs: (1) MICU/CCU/BMT ICU; (2) HMC TICU; (3) UW SICU; (4) CT ICU; and (5) Neurology/Neurosurgical ICU (NICU).

The MICU and BMT ICU were initially grouped, because the same core group of clinicians work in both ICUs at UWMC. The CCU was added to limit the number of distinct ICU categories after analysis showed that the CCU was not significantly different than the MICU in terms of placement of palliative care consults (after adjusting for confounders). Additional rationale for this grouping includes a common background in internal medicine for clinicians providing care in these ICUs. This combination of ICUs was chosen to be the reference group, as it contained the largest number of study participants (n = 1617). The SICU at UWMC primarily cares for post-operative patients who underwent elective procedures and recent transplant patients. The TICU at HMC primarily cares for trauma patients with fewer patients post-elective surgery. Due to their very different patient populations, these ICUs were separated for the analysis.

Seven variables were selected a priori as potential confounders of the associations between the predictor and our outcomes: age, gender, level of education (eight ordinal categories), racial/ethnic minority status (white non-Hispanic vs. minority), cancer diagnosis, dementia diagnosis, and number of comorbidities. The variables “level of education” and “racial/ethnic minority status” were the two variables with the most missing data, at 10.6% and 0.8% of patients, respectively.

Statistical analysis

Descriptive statistics were used to characterize patients in each of the five ICU groups. Associations between the five ICU types and each outcome were tested by using multipredictor logistic regression models with robust standard errors. ICU type was modeled with four dummy indicators, using the MICU/CCU/BMT ICU group as the reference group. Preliminary tests were used to identify confounders of associations of ICU type with each outcome. A variable was retained as a possible confounder if its addition to the unadjusted model changed the coefficient for any of the ICU-type indicators by 10% or more. Then, to preserve the maximum sample size, we did an additional confounder test for the variables that had missing data. If either education or racial/ethnic minority status remained as a possible confounder, we compared the model with only the other confounders to the model that included the variable with missing data. If adding the variable changed the coefficient for any ICU-type indicator by 10% or more, we retained it in the final set of covariates; otherwise, we retained only the confounders that had no missing data.

Confounder testing

Of the two potential confounders that included missing data, only education showed preliminary evidence of confounding. However, when education was added to a model that included the remaining confounders as covariates, the coefficients for ICU type changed <6%, suggesting that much of the apparent confounding by education overlapped with confounding by other variables. Therefore, the final models for both outcomes were based on the full set of 2706 patients and included covariate adjustment for patient age, cancer diagnosis, and number of comorbidities.

Results

We identified 2706 eligible decedents who died in an ICU during the study period (Table 2). The median age at death was 66 years. The sample was predominantly white (75.9%), and the majority were male (63.1%). Most of the sample had less than a college degree (71.7% of those whose education level was known). The most common comorbidity was heart failure (45.1%) and the least common was dementia (5.6%). The median number of comorbidities per patient was 2, with higher medians observed in patients in the CT ICU and CCU (3 for both). Overall, 36.1% of the cohort received a palliative care consultation before death and 72.2% died with a “comfort measures only” order set in place. A minority of patients (8.3%) were full code at the time of death.

Table 2.

Sample Characteristics by Intensive Care Unit

Characteristic	ICU type							Total sample, n = 2706
Characteristic	MICU, n = 937	BMT ICU, n = 330	CCU, n = 350	NICU, n = 447	SICU, n = 101	TICU, n = 318	CT ICU, n = 223	Total sample, n = 2706
Age at death^a
Mean (SD)	61.9 (14.6)	57.6 (14.9)	67.5 (14.3)	69.7 (14.0)	63.7 (16.0)	69.9 (13.9)	61.2 (15.4)	64.4 (15.1)
Median (IQR)	63.0 (17.2)	60.3 (20.2)	68.0 (16.4)	71.6 (18.0)	66.6 (21.1)	72.5 (18.3)	64.8 (18.8)	66.0 (19.2)
Female	375 (40.0)	139 (42.1)	111 (31.7)	171 (38.3)	42 (41.6)	91 (28.6)	69 (30.9)	998 (36.9)
Race
Unreported	4 (0.4)	1 (0.3)	5 (1.4)	4 (0.9)	0 (0.0)	4 (1.3)	3 (1.3)	21 (0.8)
White	666 (71.1)	279 (84.5)	264 (75.4)	337 (75.4)	79 (78.2)	251 (78.9)	177 (79.4)	2053 (75.9)
Minority	267 (28.5)	50 (15.2)	81 (23.1)	106 (23.7)	22 (21.8)	63 (19.8)	43 (19.3)	632 (23.4)
Black	89 (9.5)	12 (3.6)	25 (7.1)	22 (4.9)	5 (5.0)	19 (6.0)	14 (6.3)	186 (6.9)
Native American	27 (2.9)	3 (0.9)	11 (3.1)	13 (2.9)	2 (2.0)	17 (5.3)	3 (1.3)	76 (2.8)
Asian	89 (9.5)	19 (5.8)	27 (7.7)	47 (10.5)	7 (6.9)	15 (4.7)	17 (7.6)	221 (8.2)
Pacific islander	7 (0.7)	3 (0.9)	4 (1.1)	5 (1.1)	1 (1.0)	3 (0.9)	2 (0.9)	25 (0.9)
Hispanic	33 (3.5)	8 (2.4)	5 (1.4)	12 (2.7)	1 (1.0)	6 (1.9)	2 (0.9)	67 (2.5)
Mixed race	22 (2.4)	5 (1.5)	9 (2.6)	7 (1.6)	6 (5.9)	3 (0.9)	5 (2.2)	57 (2.1)
Education
8th Grade or less	40 (4.3)	3 (0.9)	13 (3.7)	29 (6.5)	3 (3.0)	14 (4.4)	6 (2.7)	108 (4.0)
Some high school, no diploma	83 (8.9)	7 (2.1)	22 (6.3)	29 (6.5)	4 (4.0)	28 (8.8)	12 (5.4)	185 (6.8)
High school graduate or equivalent	286 (30.5)	60 (18.2)	94 (26.9)	152 (34.0)	24 (23.8)	98 (30.8)	64 (28.7)	778 (28.8)
Some college, no degree	157 (16.8)	47 (14.2)	69 (19.7)	62 (13.9)	20 (19.8)	56 (17.6)	41 (18.4)	452 (16.7)
Associate's degree	76 (8.1)	31 (9.4)	26 (7.4)	27 (6.0)	11 (10.9)	23 (7.2)	17 (7.6)	211 (7.8)
Bachelor's degree	118 (12.6)	96 (29.1)	50 (14.3)	75 (16.8)	19 (18.8)	32 (10.1)	39 (17.5)	429 (15.9)
Master's degree	52 (5.5)	38 (11.5)	25 (7.1)	23 (5.1)	8 (7.9)	17 (5.3)	13 (5.8)	176 (6.5)
Doctoral/professional degree	25 (2.7)	20 (6.1)	10 (2.9)	5 (1.1)	4 (4.0)	7 (2.2)	9 (4.0)	80 (3.0)
Unreported	100 (10.7)	28 (8.5)	41 (11.7)	45 (10.1)	8 (7.9)	43 (13.5)	22 (9.9)	287 (10.6)
Comorbidities^b
Cancer with poor prognosis	192 (20.5)	302 (91.5)	25 (7.1)	64 (14.3)	51 (50.5)	21 (6.6)	24 (10.8)	679 (25.1)
Chronic lung disease	345 (36.8)	61 (18.5)	81 (23.1)	107 (23.9)	22 (21.8)	96 (30.2)	69 (30.9)	781 (28.9)
Coronary artery disease	306 (32.7)	76 (23.0)	283 (80.9)	188 (42.1)	32 (31.7)	144 (45.3)	146 (65.5)	1175 (43.4)
Congestive heart failure	370 (39.5)	100 (30.3)	300 (85.7)	144 (32.2)	22 (21.8)	122 (38.4)	163 (73.1)	1221 (45.1)
Peripheral vascular disease	136 (14.5)	29 (8.8)	108 (30.9)	56 (12.5)	19 (18.8)	111 (34.9)	96 (43.0)	555 (20.5)
Severe chronic liver disease	300 (32.0)	19 (5.8)	28 (8.0)	29 (6.5)	22 (21.8)	29 (9.1)	17 (7.6)	444 (16.4)
Diabetes with end-organ damage	222 (23.7)	48 (14.5)	109 (31.1)	119 (26.6)	28 (27.7)	71 (22.3)	39 (17.5)	636 (23.5)
Chronic renal failure	333 (35.5)	67 (20.3)	131 (37.4)	95 (21.3)	30 (29.7)	94 (29.6)	73 (32.7)	823 (30.4)
Dementia	68 (7.3)	5 (1.5)	17 (4.9)	33 (7.4)	6 (5.9)	19 (6.0)	3 (1.3)	151 (5.6)
No. of comorbidities^b
Mean (SD)	2.4 (1.3)	2.1 (1.1)	3.1 (1.3)	1.9 (1.1)	2.3 (1.3)	2.2 (1.2)	2.8 (1.4)	2.4 (1.3)
Median (IQR)	2 (2)	2 (2)	3 (2)	1 (2)	2 (2)	2 (2)	3 (2)	2 (2)
Year of death
2013 (July through December)	99 (10.6)	27 (8.2)	14 (4.0)	36 (8.1)	8 (7.9)	22 (6.9)	21 (9.4)	227 (8.4)
2014	166 (17.7)	66 (20.0)	59 (16.9)	95 (21.3)	20 (19.8)	73 (23.0)	34 (15.2)	513 (19.0)
2015	193 (20.6)	60 (18.2)	76 (21.7)	75 (16.8)	16 (15.8)	65 (20.4)	51 (22.9)	536 (19.8)
2016	171 (18.2)	68 (20.6)	57 (16.3)	95 (21.3)	23 (22.8)	59 (18.6)	42 (18.8)	515 (19.0)
2017	159 (17.0)	54 (16.4)	77 (22.0)	71 (15.9)	15 (14.9)	55 (17.3)	29 (13.0)	460 (17.0)
2018	149 (15.9)	55 (16.7)	67 (19.1)	75 (16.8)	19 (18.8)	44 (13.8)	46 (20.6)	455 (16.8)
ICU length of stay
Mean (SD)	10.4 (16.9)	7.7 (11.6)	10.5 (19.7)	7.5 (10.7)	14.7 (31.8)	10.1 (13.2)	16.0 (24.6)	10.2 (17.2)
Median (IQR)	5.0 (10.0)	4.0 (7.0)	5.0 (9.0)	4.0 (7.0)	6.0 (12.0)	6.0 (10.0)	8.0 (16.0)	5.0 (10.0)
Code status at death
Full code	46 (4.9)	19 (5.8)	63 (18.0)	11 (2.5)	12 (11.9)	19 (6.0)	55 (24.7)	235 (8.3)
DNR/DNI or DNI	731 (78.0)	251 (76.1)	246 (70.3)	392 (87.7)	68 (67.3)	231 (72.6)	129 (57.8)	2048 (75.7)
DNR/intubation OK	131 (14.0)	57 (17.3)	16 (4.6)	42 (9.4)	11 (10.9)	45 (14.2)	18 (8.1)	320 (11.8)
Status not documented	29 (3.1)	3 (0.9)	25 (7.1)	2 (0.4)	10 (9.9)	23 (7.2)	21 (9.4)	113 (4.2)
Palliative care consultation	313 (33.4)	161 (48.8)	133 (38.0)	73 (16.3)	34 (33.7)	136 (42.8)	127 (57.0)	977 (36.1)
CMO orders	700 (74.7)	258 (78.2)	182 (52.0)	372 (83.2)	68 (67.3)	234 (73.6)	140 (62.8)	1954 (72.2)

Unless otherwise specified, each cell includes the number of patients (% of column total) with the characteristic.

All distributions of age, number of comorbidities, and length of stay were significantly non-normal, based on both the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests, making the median/IQR better representations of central tendency and dispersion.

Based on ICD codes specified in Dartmouth Atlas with a few codes for lung disease and dementia excluded.

CMO, comfort measures only; DNI, do-not-intubate order; DNR, do-not-resuscitate order; IQR, interquartile range; SD, standard deviation.

Palliative care consultation

The patient's ICU type at death was significantly associated with odds of palliative care consultation during the patient's terminal ICU stay (p < 0.001; Table 3 and Fig. 1). When compared with the MICU/CCU/BMT ICU group, odds of receiving a palliative care consultation before death were highest in the CT ICU (odds ratio [OR] 2.30; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.72–3.07; p < 0.001) and trauma ICU (OR 1.73; 95% CI 1.33–2.25; p < 0.001) and lowest in the Neurology/Neurosurgical ICU (OR 0.44; 95% CI 0.34–0.59; p < 0.001).

FIG. 1.

Proportion of patients who received specialty palliative care consultation during their terminal ICU stay by unit type. *Reference group. **Statistically significantly different from reference group (p < 0.001). HMC, Harborview Medical Center; ICU, intensive care unit; UWMC-M, University of Washington Medical Center—Montlake.

Table 3.

Association of Intensive Care Unit Type and End-of-Life Outcomes

Outcome	Predictors	Confounders	Β	OR	95% CI	p
Palliative care	ICU type					<0.001
	MICU, CCU, BMT ICU		0.000	1.000
	TICU		0.546	1.726	1.326–2.248	<0.001
	SICU		−0.191	0.826	0.533–1.280	0.392
	CT ICU		0.832	2.297	1.719–3.068	<0.001
	NICU		−0.813	0.444	0.335–0.587	<0.001
		Cancer	0.420	1.522	1.256–1.845	<0.001
		No. of comorbidities	0.169	1.185	1.110–1.264	<0.001
		Age	−0.021	0.979	0.974–0.985	<0.001
Comfort-measures-only orders	ICU type					<0.001
	MICU, CCU, BMT ICU		0.000	1.000
	TICU		0.160	1.174	0.886–1.555	0.264
	SICU		−0.237	0.789	0.509–1.223	0.290
	CT ICU		−0.251	0.778	0.576–1.050	0.101
	NICU		0.692	1.997	1.513, 2.637	<0.001
		Cancer	0.342	1.408	1.145–1.730	0.001
		No. of comorbidities	−0.065	0.937	0.877–1.002	0.058
		Age	0.008	1.008	1.002, 1.014	0.011

Results for each outcome were based on a robust logistic regression model based on 2706 patients who died in an ICU. Each model included the predictor and outcome of interest, along with the three variables that confounded the association between ICU type and outcome (given in italics).

CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratio.

“Comfort measures only” order set

ICU type was also significantly associated with presence of the “comfort measures only” order set at time of death (p < 0.001; Table 3 and Fig. 2). When compared with the MICU/CCU/BMT ICU group, odds of having “comfort measures only” orders were highest in the Neurology/Neurosurgical ICU (OR 2.00; 95% CI 1.51–2.64; p < 0.001). Differences between the other ICU types and the reference group were not statistically significant.

FIG 2.

Proportion of patients who had a CMO order set in place at time of death by unit type. *Reference group. **Statistically significantly different from reference group (p < 0.001). CMO, comfort measures only.

Discussion

In this retrospective cohort study, we assessed the variability of specialty palliative care consultations and CMO order set use at the end of life across types of ICUs. There is growing recognition of the importance of palliative care across various ICU types, especially in units underrepresented in the current literature, such as CCUs, trauma ICUs, and neurosurgical ICUs.^7,9,10 Although patient characteristics differ across ICU type by diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment plan, they also share certain features. By focusing on patients with chronic, life-limiting illness who died during the ICU stay, we hoped to highlight a patient population with more pronounced palliative care needs, regardless of the initial indication for or location of ICU admission. Although prior studies have shown variability in end-of-life practices in ICUs both nationally^22–25 and internationally,²⁶ none have looked at differences in care across types of ICUs nor at the use of palliative care consults and CMO order sets as a means of understanding variations in end-of-life care across ICU types. Our results demonstrated significant variation in the use of specialty palliative care and CMO order sets by ICU type.

When compared with our group of MICUs (MICU/CCU/BMT ICU), the odds of having a palliative care consult placed during a terminal ICU stay were higher in the CT ICU and TICU. These findings are at odds with our hypothesis; we expected that surgically oriented ICUs would use less specialty palliative care. Prior research has shown that when surgeons have primary responsibility for patients, a “covenantal” ethic is likely to be followed in which defeating death is seen as the primary goal.²⁷ Also, prior surgical literature on barriers to palliative consultations in trauma ICUs noted the fear of being seen as “giving up.”¹² Finally, historically, surgical services and their attendings have been found to have comparatively lower rates of specialty palliative care consultation.^11,13

We offer several potential explanations for our unexpected finding of relatively higher odds of palliative care consultation in the trauma and CT ICUs as compared with the MICUs. First, over the past decade, there has been growing awareness and utilization of palliative care consultations in general,^4,5 including an increasing number of publications on the utility and underutilization of palliative care in surgical and trauma services.^8,10,12,28 This growing awareness of and improved perception of palliative care among surgeons, who may have less time to invest in long palliative care conversations, may have led to a higher rate of specialty palliative care consultations in these surgically oriented ICUs. It is also possible that clinicians in MICUs are more comfortable providing primary palliative care and are less likely to request specialty palliative care consultation than their surgical colleagues. When using MICUs as the reference group, as we did here, this difference would appear as a higher odds of palliative care consultation among surgical services. Of note, the same increased odds of specialty palliative care consultation were not seen in the UWMC SICU, possibly because this service is traditionally staffed by a higher proportion of Pulmonary/Critical Care trained providers than the other surgically oriented ICUs. Finally, the UW Medicine system has historically been an early adopter of palliative care and has developed programs to enhance primary palliative care in the ICU.^29,30 Although this may be a system-level factor that influenced our findings, it would not explain why SICUs have proportionally higher consults than other ICUs.

We also found lower odds of palliative care consultation and higher odds of “comfort measures only” order set utilization in the neurology/neurosurgical ICU. Previous studies have demonstrated high palliative care needs in this patient population.⁷ One possible reason for less involvement of specialty palliative care would be that cases at the extreme (e.g., severe traumatic brain injury or large devastating strokes) are easier to prognosticate and may reduce the need for complex goals-of-care discussions that necessitate the skills of specialty palliative care providers. Prior work has suggested that for patients who present with sudden advanced illness, providers were less likely to consider a palliative care consult, especially for patients with “imminent death early in patient course.”³¹ Another institutionally specific factor is that the neurology/neurosurgical ICU utilizes senior (nonoperating) neurosurgeons to assist with family communication and goals-of-care discussions. This unique model may decrease the subsequent need for specialty palliative care consultation. Similar models may be worth considering at other institutions where specialty palliative care consultation capacity is limited.

This study has several important limitations. First, decedents were drawn from a single health care system in a single geographical region where efforts to increase primary and specialty palliative care involvement have been robust and sustained. However, there are many other institutions across the United States who have made significant strides in the integration of palliative care into their hospitals. Second, study inclusion was determined by both location of death (defined as the patient's physical location in an ICU bed at the time of death) and the primary service listed in the EHR at the time of death. Due to the way the data were coded in the EHR, it is possible that some patients included in this study were physically located in an ICU, but not cared for by an ICU team (i.e., recently transferred to a floor service but still physically located in an ICU bed). Although this type of misclassification may have occurred, we suspect it to be minimal in impact and distributed relatively evenly across the various ICU types. Third, this study examines decedents and might raise concerns about a decedent bias.³² However, since our research question focuses specifically on end-of-life care in the ICU, this is less of a concern. Finally, we do not have data on the exact time CMO orders or palliative care consults were placed in relation to the time of death of a patient. This would be important to know, as consults or order sets placed immediately before death may not have been as helpful to the patient as those placed earlier on in their ICU stay.

Conclusions

This study shows that practice patterns for utilization of specialty palliative care consultations and “comfort measures only” order sets vary across different types of ICUs, even when the patient population is limited to chronically ill patients who died in the ICU. Although some of this variation may be related to the different comorbidities and reasons for ICU admission present in the different types of ICUs, it is likely that individual provider practices, unique unit cultures, changing attitudes toward specialty palliative care, and increasing perceived and real expertise in primary palliative care play an important role in the observed differences.¹¹ This type of culture- and clinician-driven variability may not necessarily indicate poor quality of care. The quality of end-of-life care as delivered by different ICUs will necessarily reflect factors at the institutional level that drive and determine care. Additional study of these topics in a variety of geographic regions would be helpful to assess regional or national trends. Hospital systems should be encouraged to examine their own system for variability in palliative care and CMO order set usage. Examining reasons for this variability may provide insight into opportunities to improve end-of-life care in the ICU for patients with chronic, life-limiting illness.

Footnotes

Funding Information

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (Grants T32HL07287 [J.D.L.] and K23HL144830 [N.K.]) and the Cambia Health Foundation.

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Supplementary Material

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Supplementary Material

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