Effects of a 24/7 Palliative Care Service Integration in a Metropolitan Area on Non-oncologic Patients

This retrospective observational pre-post study aims to test the effects of introducing a remote telephonic consultation availability from the Palliative Care Service for a cohort of non-oncologic patients followed by the same service, their relatives, and the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and family care physicians taking care of them.

The main question[s] it aims to answer are:

• Does the introduction of a remote telephonic consultation availability affect the rate of ED access of non-oncologic Palliative-care followed patients during their last 90 days of life?
• Does the introduction of a remote telephonic consultation availability have an effect on the rate of EMS requests for these patients during their last 90 days of life?
• Which are the main topics of the calls to the Palliative Care Service?

Due to the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic during the study period, a parallel cohort of oncologic patients under 24/7 palliative care by the same service during both the observation periods will be used as reference.

Participants will be followed up from the date of taking-over request to the Palliative Care Service to their death or the end of the period of observation if followup began during their last 90 days of life.

Otherwise, for those being already under home palliative care at the 90th day before their death, follow up will begin at that day.

Researchers will compare two time periods to see if the introduction of a remote telephonic consultation availability has an effect on the supra-mentioned aims.