Screening hospitalized cancer patients for palliative care needs

Background To proactively offer adequate palliative care to patients with life-limiting diseases, these patients must first be identified. In doing so, patient- and physician-related barriers have to be overcome, whereby screening for palliative needs is useful. A combination of external and self-assessment is recommended. Current status There are many instruments that either assess the symptom burden and/or the psychological burden of the patients and their relatives. So far, however, there is no screening instrument from which a direct palliative need for co-care can be read directly. Considerations for the inpatient setting For the inpatient setting, we propose a graduated procedure in which prognosis-relevant data from the (nursing) anamnesis are automatically extracted and combined with a structured physician assessment and a self-assessment of the patient. Conclusion Graduated and multiprofessional screening models can support the joint commitment of oncologists and palliative care specialists to provide the best possible palliative care for patients with life-limiting diseases.