A Retrospective study of factors affecting decision making for ICU resource utilization and outcomes in patients admitted to the critical care units with triggers for palliative care referral on admission in tertiary care hospital in southern India

Palliative care deals with patients physical, spiritual and psychosocial needs, it performs accurate assessments related to  patients’ illness and helps in managing them effectively. Admission to ICU imposes major burden on patients and family members both emotionally and financially and this worsens with increase in the length of icu stay and unnecessary life sustaining treatments.

This study is aimed at identifying the factors influencing palliative referral in critical care units, to explore factors contributing to medical futility, and burden of prolonged life sustaining treatment in icu**,** to optimise icu resource utilization with early referral to critical care units.

As there is limited literature available on palliative care in Indian setups due to lack of end-of-life care policies, findings of our study will help contribute to the literature and evaluate if early referrals to palliative care can impact overall outcome critically ill patients .