Dr. Manthri and Dr. Simmons are Fellows at St. Louis University in Missouri. Dr. Cepeda is a Palliative Care Physician at the John Cochran Division of the VA St. Louis Health Care System. Dr. Cepeda also is Director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Correspondence: Dr. Manthri (sukeshmanthri123@gmail.com)
Author disclosures The authors report no actual or potential conflicts of interest with regard to this article.
Disclaimer The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those ofFederal Practitioner,Frontline Medical Communications Inc., the US Government, or any of its agencies.
Limitations
This study was a single-institution study, but every institution has its own internal culture. The team did not have a concurrent or historic control for comparison or use a questionnaire for patients and families rating their satisfaction.
Conclusion
This study provides multiple future directions of research as the authors now have baseline data about how the service is used. Future areas of interest would be to study the effectiveness of early palliative care interventions, such as a provider education series, implementation of consultation criteria, and prospective measurement of the impact of palliative care consultations on the SMR and SAIL indicators. This research could help identify which early interventions show the best efficacy, an area where research is notably lacking.25
