With palliative care, earlier referrals mean fewer end-of-life emergency department visits

10/16/25 at 03:00 AM

With palliative care, earlier referrals mean fewer end-of-life emergency department visits 
ONS Voice; by Anne Snively, MBA, CAE; 10/15/25 
Patients with cancer who are referred to palliative care within one month of death have a mean of 1.17 emergency department (ED) visits, compared to a mean of 0.13 visits for patients referred to palliative care 12 months or more before death—a 160% difference. The data are part of a new study published in JAMA Network Open in July 2025. ... Most of ED visits (47.0%) and EOL ED visits (81.4%) occurred within one month of the palliative care consultation, but the researchers found that both kinds of ED visits “gradually decreased as the time from consultation to death extended.” 

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