login

Continuity of Care and Intensive Care Unit Use at the End of Life

Archives of Internal MedicinePublished 12 January 2009
Gulshan Sharma, Jean L. Freeman, Dong Zhang, James S. Goodwin
Citations66

TL;DR

Changes over time in outpatient-to-inpatient continuity of care in individuals hospitalized with advanced lung cancer and its relationship to end-of-life intensive care unit (ICU) use are examined via retrospective analysis of the linked Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare database.

Abstract

Outpatient-to-inpatient continuity of care declined during the 1990s and early 2000s. Patients with terminal lung cancer who experienced outpatient-to-inpatient continuity of care were less likely to spend time in the ICU before death.

Keywords

MedicineHealth ProfessionsEconomics, Econometrics and Finance