A fully integrated inpatient partnership between palliative care and medical oncology is linked with substantial improvements in key quality cancer metrics, according to a retrospective, longitudinal, pre- and post-intervention cohort study involving >1,500 individuals. Participants were admitted to Duke University hospital’s solid tumor inpatient service in 2009-2010 (pre-intervention cohort; n=731) and 2011-2012 (post-intervention cohort; n=783). Investigators looked at demographics, cancer diagnosis, disease status, length of stay, intensive care unit transfer rate, discharge disposition, time to emergency department return, time to readmission, and 7- and 30-day emergency department return and readmission rates. They also assessed intervention satisfaction via physician/nurse surveys. Among the results:

• Patients in the postintervention cohort were 24% less likely to be readmitted within 7 days.
• They averaged 0.30 fewer days in the hospital.
• Physicians and nurses favored the intervention.