Improving end-of-life care in GI oncology patients.

172Background: In FY17, there were 108 patients with cancer who died on an inpatient unit at UVA, and of these, 17 patients (16%) died with incurable advanced stage GI cancer. In addition, 54% of these GI cancer patients did not have an outpatient palliative care consult prior to their time of death. Lack of early palliative care consultation leads to poor end of life care, compromises quality of life for patients and their families, and promotes the overutilization of healthcare. Methods: We participated in the ASCO Quality Training Program for this project. Our first aim (AIM#1) was to increase inpatient palliative care consults by 25% in patients with advanced stage GI cancers who were considered unscheduled admissions by hospital day 2. Our second aim (AIM#2) was to increase outpatient palliative care referrals by 25% in patients with pancreatic and hepatobiliary cancers by the second visit. We conducted these aims at UVA from August 2017 to February 2018. The intervention was to remind the GI oncolog...