Mobile Palliative Care Consultation Service (PCCS): Overview of Hospice and Palliative Care Evaluation (HOPE) Data on In-Patients With End-Stage Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, and Noncancer, Nonneurological Disease From 4 PCCS Centers in Germany in 2013:

Context:During the last decade, numerous in-patient Palliative Care Consultation Service (PCCS) units were established throughout Germany.Objective:To provide an epidemiological overview on a whole year cohort of palliative patients in terms of demography, complaints, and therapy on admission to PCCS and the impact of PCCS treatment, and identify differences and similarities in different palliative patient subgroups.Methods:Chi-square, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Kruskal-Wallis followed by Games-Howell analysis of HOspice and Palliative care Evaluation (HOPE 2013) data on 4 PCCS centers and in total 919 patients, with solid tumors (237), metastatic cancer (397), leukemia and lymphoma (99), neurological (109, mostly multiple sclerosis [MS]), and noncancer, nonneurological disease (NCNND, 77).Results:A mostly uniform block of 3 cancer subgroups in terms of demographics, admission complaints, and initial pharmacological treatment diverged from the neurologic/MS disease subgroup. The “intermediate,” NCNND s...