Classifying inpatient deaths among liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer and the effect of palliative care utilization on overall health care burden.

Abstract

e16673 Background: Liver cancer and bile duct cancer remain among of the most deadly cancers with a dismal 5 year survival of 2-15%. Patients often end up dying in an in-hospital setting as a result of acute complication of cancer progression. The purpose of this study is to identify annual trends in this sub-population, including cause of admission, palliative care utilization and economic impact on healthcare. Methods: From the years of 2002 to 2014, admissions for patients with a diagnosis of liver and bile duct cancer were identified using the National Inpatient Sample. Annual trends in incidence were compared to overall deaths via the SEER database. Trends were identified in hospital length of stay (LOS), total charges (TC), as well as utilization of palliative care. The effect of palliative care utilization on hospital length of stay and costs were also studied. Results: 73,833 (weighted) patient deaths were recorded from 2002 to 2014, 4,577 in 2002, compared to 6,595 in 2014. Signifying 33% (2002) to 32% (2014) of total deaths related to these cancers. The most common billed primary diagnosis was liver failure at 16.9%, sepsis (15.3%) and renal failure (6.7%). Overall LOS trended down from 5.9 days to 4.8 days (p < 0.001). Palliative consults increased from 8.2% in 2002 to 39.4% in 2014. In 2014, the mean TC for those who received palliative consults versus those who did not was $52,612 and $64,388 respectively (p < 0.001). LOS among these patients did not significantly change at 5.9 and 5.6 days (p = 0.13). When looking at patients with sepsis who did not die, a palliative care consult decreased costs from $87,564 to $75,223 (p < 0.001). LOS was not significantly different at 8.8 days to 8.5 days (p = 0.15). Conclusions: A third of patients with liver and bile duct cancers die in an in-hospital setting. More effort needs to be undertaken to identify these patients and establish appropriate goals of care prior to such an event. Nonetheless, palliative involvement decreased health care resource utilization. Even among patients with sepsis who did not die, a palliative care consult decreased total charges of admission.