Inpatient Palliative Care and Healthcare Utilization Among Older Patients With Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia (ADRD) and High Risk of Mortality in U.S. Hospitals.

Background. Despite the potential of palliative care (PC) to enhance the quality of life for patients with advanced dementia, there is limited knowledge of its inpatient utilization patterns. This study investigated inpatient PC consultation utilization patterns and evaluated its impact on hospital length of stay (LOS) and medical costs among older patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia who were at a high risk of mortality (ADRD-HRM). Methods. Using the 2016-2019 National Inpatient Sample database, we conducted multivariable logistic regression analyses to identify individual and hospital characteristics influencing PC consultation utilization. We subsequently performed generalized linear models to estimate LOS (using Poisson distribution) and hospital charges (via log-transformation). Results. Our sample encompassed 965,644 hospital discharges (weighted n = 4,828,219) of patients aged 65 years and above with ADRD-HRM. Among them, 14.6% received inpatient PC. There was a notable uptrend in PC consultation utilization from 13.3% in 2016 to 16.3% in 2019 (p trend<.001). Factors positively influencing and associated with PC utilization included patients that are older, non-Hispanic White, with higher income, receiving care from teaching hospitals, and facilitated with greater bed capacity (all P < .05). Although patients who received PC were more likely to have 3.0% longer LOS (P < .001), they had 19.2% lower hospital charges (P < .001). Conclusions. PC substantially reduced hospital expenditures for older patients with ADRD-HRM, but the prevalence remained low at 14.6% in the study period. Future studies should explore the unmet needs of patients with lower sociodemographic status and those in rural hospitals to further increase their PC consultation utilization.

Primary and Specialist Palliative Care in Neurosurgery: A Narrative Review and Bibliometric Analysis of Glioblastoma and Stroke.

OBJECTIVE: Due to the increased demand for palliative care (PC) in recent years, a model has been proposed to divide PC into primary PC and specialist PC. This article aimed to delineate the indications for primary and specialist PC within 2 common neurosurgical conditions-glioblastoma (GBM) and stroke. METHODS: A systematic review and bibliometric analysis was conducted to better appreciate the practice trends in PC utilization for GBM and stroke patients using several databases. RESULTS: There were 70 studies on PC for GBM, the majority of which related to patient preference (22 [31%]). During 1999-2022, there was significant growth in publications per year on this topic at a rate of approximately 0.3 publications per year (P < 0.01). There were 44 studies on PC for stroke, the majority of which related to communication strategies (14 [32%]). During 1999-2022, there was no significant growth in stroke publications per year (P = 0.22). CONCLUSIONS: Due to the progressively disabling neurological course of GBM, we suggest that a specialty PC team be used in conjunction with the neurosurgical team early in the disease trajectory while patients are still able to communicate their preferences, goals, and values. In contrast, short-term and long-term stages of management of stroke have differing implications for PC needs, with the short-term stage necessitating adept, time-sensitive communication between the patient, family, and care teams. Thus, we propose that primary PC should be included as a core competency in neurosurgery training, among other stroke specialists.

Translating Policy to Practice: An Association Between Medicare Access and Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act Implementation and Palliative Care Consultations and Perioperative Mortality in Critical Care.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the 30-day postoperative mortality and palliative care consultations in patients that underwent surgical procedures in the United States before and after Medicare Access and Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (MACRA) implementation. DESIGN: Retrospective, Observational cohort study. SETTING: Secondary data were collected from the U.S. National Inpatient Sample, the largest hospital database in the country. The time span was from 2011 to 2019. PATIENTS: Adult patients that electively underwent 1 of 19 major procedures. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The primary outcome was cumulative postoperative mortality in two study cohorts. The secondary outcome was palliative care use. We identified 4,900,451 patients and categorized them into two study cohorts: PreM: 2011-2014 ( n = 2,103,836) and PostM: 2016-2019 ( n = 2,796,615). Regression discontinuity estimates and multivariate analysis were used. Across all procedures, 149,372 patients (7.1%) and 156,610 patients (5%) died within 30 days of their index procedures in the PreM and PostM cohorts, respectively. There was no statistically significant increase in mortality rates around postoperative day (POD) 30 (POD 26-30 vs 31-35) for both cohorts. More patients had inpatient palliative consultations during POD 31-60 compared with POD 1-30 in PreM (8,533 of 2,081,207 patients [0.4%] vs 1,118 of 22,629 patients [4.9%]) and PostM (18,915 of 2,791,712 patients [0.7%] vs 417 of 4,903 patients [8.5%]). Patients were more likely to receive palliative care consultations during POD 31-60 compared with POD 1-30 in both the PreM (odds ratio [OR] 5.31; 95% CI, 2.22-8.68; p < 0.001) and the PostM (OR 7.84; 95% CI, 4.83-9.10; p < 0.001) cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: We did not observe an increase in postoperative mortality after POD 30 before or after MACRA implementation. However, palliative care use markedly increased after POD 30. These findings should be considered hypothesis-generating because of several confounders.

Palliative care approaches to acute stroke in the hospital setting.

Stroke is a prevalent neurologic condition that portends a high risk of morbidity and mortality such that patients impacted by stroke and their caregivers can benefit from palliative care at the time of diagnosis and throughout the disease trajectory. Clinicians who care for stroke patients should be adept at establishing rapport with patients and caregivers, delivering serious news, responding to emotions, discussing prognosis, and establishing goals of care efficiently in an acute stroke setting. Aggressive stroke care can be integrated with a palliative approach to care that involves aligning the available treatment options with a patient's values and goals of care. Reassessing the goals throughout the hospitalization provides an opportunity for continued shared decision-making about the intensity of poststroke interventions. The palliative needs for stroke patients may increase over time depending on the severity of disease, poststroke complications, stroke-related symptoms, and treatment intensity preferences. If the decision is made to transition the focus of care to comfort, the support of an interdisciplinary palliative care or hospice team can be beneficial to the patient, family members, and surrogate decision makers.

Early Versus Usual Palliative Care Consultation in the Intensive Care Unit.

OBJECTIVES: Palliative Medicine involvement in MICU patients have improved length of stay and mortality, but with varying effects on specific patient decision outcomes, such as, advance care planning. These studies have utilized Palliative Medicine later in the hospital or ICU course, with some evidence showing that earlier involvement resulted in better results. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the benefits of early (within 24 hours) palliative care consultation in medical ICU (MICU) patients to clinical and satisfaction outcomes. METHODS: An unblinded randomized study performed in the MICU in one academic hospital in the USA. Ninety-one adult patients admitted to MICU received a Palliative care medicine consultation within 24 hours as the intervention. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Ninety-one patients admitted to the MICU underwent randomization with 50 patients randomly assigned to receive Palliative Medicine consultation and 41 patients randomly assigned to receive standard-of-care based on predefined criteria. The median satisfaction score was 23 points higher for the patients in the intervention group (P < .001). The median length of MICU stay was 5 days shorter in the intervention group compared to the control group (95% CI; 1 day to 18 days, P = .018). Advance care planning was completed in the hospital for 34% of patients in the intervention arm and 12% of patients in the controls arm (absolute risk difference 22%, 95% CI 4% to 37%, P = .016). CONCLUSION: Early Palliative Medicine consultation within 24 hours of MICU admission showed significant benefits to patients by improving satisfaction and decreasing length of stay. This study provides evidence that Palliative Medicine involvement earlier in the course of severe disease is important. Further studies in other types of intensive care units (neurological and Cardiovascular) are necessary to determine their impact.

Creating a Dementia Friendly Community in an African American Neighborhood: Perspectives of People Living with Dementia, Care Partners, Stakeholders, and Community Residents.

A dementia friendly community allows people with dementia and their care partners to remain engaged in their community well into the disease. This study presents the results of primary research aimed at exploring perceptions regarding building a dementia friendly community in an African American neighborhood in northeast Florida. Twelve focus groups and five interviews were conducted with people living with dementia, informal and formal care partners, community stakeholders and neighborhood residents, and analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Three main themes emerged from the analyses, including (1) perceived needs, (2) facilitators and barriers to being dementia friendly, and (3) opportunities for the community to become more dementia friendly. Study findings highlight the unique needs of a single African American neighborhood and the importance of culturally tailoring the dementia friendly model to diverse communities.

Testing an Alzheimer's Disease Educational Approach in Two African American Neighborhoods in Florida.

African Americans experience a significantly greater burden of Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to non-Hispanic White Americans. Raising awareness and increasing knowledge of AD within African American communities is an important step towards addressing these disparities. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of two approaches to sharing AD knowledge with community residents. Using a quasi-experimental design, African American participants were recruited through community partners and local resources in two comparable neighborhoods in Duval County, Florida, which formed the intervention and the comparison groups for this study. The identical 40-min educational lecture was provided to both groups. In the intervention community, the lecture was followed by focus group sessions modeled after the Dementia Friendly America toolkit. In the comparison community, the lecture was followed by a social event where participants could interact informally with the speaker and dementia outreach staff. A brief quantitative survey assessing AD knowledge was administered to participants in both groups before the education session, immediately after the lecture, and 2 months later. Results indicate that both groups improved their knowledge scores at immediate post-test. Scores for both groups declined at 2-month follow-up, but the comparison group's scores declined more precipitously than the intervention group's scores (p = 0.0.21). These results suggest that conducting focus groups and interviews following a lecture on AD may help better retain AD knowledge over time.

Patient perception of physician empathy in stroke telemedicine.

INTRODUCTION: We assessed patients' perceptions of physician empathy during telemedicine consultations as compared to in-person consultations during clinical encounters for acute stroke. METHODS: This prospective cohort study was undertaken at a comprehensive stroke centre hub in collaboration with a distant community hospital spoke site. Eligible participants presented to hub or spoke emergency departments with suspected acute stroke within three hours of symptom onset. Participants were evaluated at the hub site in person or at the remote site via telemedicine by the same group of neurologists. Following acute care decisions, single-visit data including participant-reported assessments of physician empathy were collected within 24 h. The primary outcome was the Consultation and Relational Empathy score. The secondary outcome for the telemedicine cohort was the Telemedicine Patient Satisfaction Measure score. RESULTS: Between 31 May 2013-13 March 2019, 70 patients completed the study. Fifty patients were seen by telemedicine and 20 patients were seen in person. Median Consultation and Relational Empathy scores (with a possible score of 10-50) were 49 (range 27-50) for telemedicine and 45 (range 26-50) for in-person consultations (Wilcoxon rank sum p = 0.18). Each item of the Consultation and Relational Empathy questionnaire was rated very good or excellent by at least 87% of participants in the telemedicine group. The median Telemedicine Patient Satisfaction Measure score was 54 (range 12-60), with each item rated agree or strongly agree by at least 84% of participants. DISCUSSION: We found no difference between telemedicine and in-person visits in patient perception of physician empathy in acute stroke care. Therefore, we conclude that empathy can be conveyed by facial expression, voice and attentiveness in a telemedicine encounter and, in the setting of acute stroke care, does not require physical touch or proximity.

Attitudes toward advance care planning among persons with dementia and their caregivers.

OBJECTIVES: To examine factors that influence decision-making, preferences, and plans related to advance care planning (ACP) and end-of-life care among persons with dementia and their caregivers, and examine how these may differ by race. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: 13 geographically dispersed Alzheimer's Disease Centers across the United States. PARTICIPANTS: 431 racially diverse caregivers of persons with dementia. MEASUREMENTS: Survey on "Care Planning for Individuals with Dementia." RESULTS: The respondents were knowledgeable about dementia and hospice care, indicated the person with dementia would want comfort care at the end stage of illness, and reported high levels of both legal ACP (e.g., living will; 87%) and informal ACP discussions (79%) for the person with dementia. However, notable racial differences were present. Relative to white persons with dementia, African American persons with dementia were reported to have a lower preference for comfort care (81% vs. 58%) and lower rates of completion of legal ACP (89% vs. 73%). Racial differences in ACP and care preferences were also reflected in geographic differences. Additionally, African American study partners had a lower level of knowledge about dementia and reported a greater influence of religious/spiritual beliefs on the desired types of medical treatments. Notably, all respondents indicated that more information about the stages of dementia and end-of-life health care options would be helpful. CONCLUSIONS: Educational programs may be useful in reducing racial differences in attitudes towards ACP. These programs could focus on the clinical course of dementia and issues related to end-of-life care, including the importance of ACP.

Burnout and attrition: Expanding the gender gap in neurology?

Neurology faces an increasing shortage of neurologists in the United States due to a growing demand for neurologic services. A 7% increase in the supply of neurologists is predicted from 2012 to 2025, whereas the demand will rise by 16%. An increase in the neurology workforce is critical to meet the demands, and a significant gender gap remains within the workforce that must be addressed to further ease the discrepancy between supply and demand. Individual, institutional, and societal factors contribute to this gender discrepancy and potentially result in the burnout or soft attrition of women from neurology. These factors, including earning disparity between male and female neurologists, one of the largest gaps in pay for any medical specialty, and the lack of representation at higher academic levels with only 12% (14 of 113) of neurology department chairs at academic medical centers being women, could lead to increased attrition of women from neurology. Identifying and mitigating these factors may help narrow the gender gap and increase the supply of neurologists to better meet future demand.

Palliative Care in Neurology.

Palliative medicine is a specialty that focuses on improving the quality of life for patients with serious or advanced medical conditions, and it is appropriate at any stage of disease, including at the time of diagnosis. Neurologic conditions tend to have high symptom burdens, variable disease courses, and poor prognoses that affect not only patients but also their families and caregivers. Patients with a variety of neurologic conditions such as Parkinson disease, dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, brain tumors, stroke, and acute neurologic illnesses have substantial unmet needs that can be addressed through a combination of primary and specialty palliative care. The complex needs of these patients are ideally managed with a comprehensive approach to care that addresses the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of care in an effort to reduce suffering. Early discussions about prognosis, goals of care, and advance care planning are critical as they can provide guidance for treatment decisions and allow patients to retain a sense of autonomy despite progressive cognitive or functional decline. With the rapid growth in palliative care across the United States, there are opportunities to improve the palliative care knowledge of neurology trainees, the delivery of palliative care to patients with neurologic disease by both neurologists and nonneurologists, and the research agenda for neuropalliative care.

Pacemaker Placement in Patients with Stroke-Mediated Autonomic Dysregulation.

Lateral medullary syndrome (LMS) is an ischemic disease of the medulla oblongata, which involves the territory of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery. Lateral medullary syndrome is often missed as the cause of autonomic dysregulation in patients with recent brain stem stroke. Due to the location of the baroreceptor regulatory center in the lateral medulla oblongata, patients with LMS occasionally have autonomic dysregulation-associated clinical manifestations. We report a case of LMS-associated autonomic dysregulation. The case presented as sinus arrest and syncope, requiring permanent pacemaker placement. A dual-chamber pacemaker was placed, after failure of conservative measures to alleviate the patient's symptoms. Our case shows the importance of recognizing LMS as a potential cause for life-threatening arrhythmias, heart block, and symptomatic bradycardia. Placement of permanent pacemaker may be necessary in some patients with LMS presenting with syncope, secondary to sinus arrest.

The lack of documentation of preferences in a cohort of adults who died after ischemic stroke.

OBJECTIVE: To measure the extent and timing of physicians' documentation of communication with patients and families regarding limitations on life-sustaining interventions, in a population cohort of adults who died within 30 days after hospitalization for ischemic stroke. METHODS: We used the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development Patient Discharge Database to identify a retrospective cohort of adults with ischemic strokes at all California acute care hospitals from December 2006 to November 2007. Of 326 eligible hospitals, a representative sample of 39 was selected, stratified by stroke volume and mortality. Medical records of 981 admissions were abstracted, oversampled on mortality and tissue plasminogen activator receipt. Among 198 patients who died by 30 days postadmission, overall proportions and timing of documented preferences were calculated; factors associated with documentation were explored. RESULTS: Of the 198 decedents, mean age was 80 years, 78% were admitted from home, 19% had mild strokes, 11% received tissue plasminogen activator, and 42% died during the index hospitalization. Preferences about at least one life-sustaining intervention were recorded on 39% of patients: cardiopulmonary resuscitation 34%, mechanical ventilation 23%, nasogastric tube feeding 10%, and percutaneous enteral feeding 6%. Most discussions occurred within 5 days of death. Greater stroke severity was associated with increased in-hospital documentation of preferences (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Documented discussions about limitations on life-sustaining interventions during hospitalization were low, even though this cohort died within 30 days poststroke. Improving the documentation of preferences may be difficult given the 2015 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid 30-day stroke mortality hospital performance measure that is unadjusted for patient preferences regarding life-sustaining interventions.

Neurologists as primary palliative care providers: Communication and practice approaches.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To present current knowledge and recommendations regarding communication tasks and practice approaches for neurologists as they practice primary palliative care, including discussing serious news, managing symptoms, aligning treatment with patient preferences, introducing hospice/terminal care, and using the multiprofessional approach. RECENT FINDINGS: Neurologists receive little formal palliative care training yet often need to discuss prognosis in serious illness, manage intractable symptoms in chronic progressive disease, and alleviate suffering for patients and their families. Because patients with neurologic disorders often have major cognitive impairment, physical impairment, or both, with an uncertain prognosis, their palliative care needs are particularly challenging and they remain largely uncharacterized and often unmanaged. SUMMARY: We provide an overview of neuropalliative care as a fundamental skill set for all neurologists.