Palliative care for cardiovascular patients: comparison of the motives of referral by cardiologists and the actual care provided by the mobile palliative care team.

BACKGROUND

Palliative care for cardiovascular patients remains suboptimal, with few referrals to palliative care, often late in the disease. We investigated why cardiologists request palliative care and described the palliative care team's responses.

METHODS

This retrospective study included cardiovascular patients referred to the mobile palliative care team of a French University Hospital from 2010 to 2020 and compared cardiologists' referral motives with the care provided by the palliative care team.

RESULTS

Among 142 patients, almost half (47%) were women. The mean age at the time of death was 76 ± 14 years. For the 142 patients, 29.6% of referrals were unspecific, 24.6% involved ethical dilemmas, and 16.2% focused on symptom management. Conversely, the palliative care team addressed ethical dilemmas in 48.6% and symptom management in 19.7%, revealing a 56% mismatch between requests and interventions delivered.

CONCLUSION

Cardiologists often lack specific motives when referring patients to palliative care and may be unaware of ethical issues in cardiology care, highlighting need to raise awareness among cardiologists about ethical issues and palliative care services.