New palliative care screening tool for surgical ICU patients may facilitate decision-making processes

To aid in decision-making processes and increase awareness around palliative care in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), a research team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill) has developed a screening tool to identify—within seconds—patients who may benefit from palliative care consultations or goals of care discussions. Their research findings, presented at the Scientific Forum during the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2022, show that the screening tool successfully identified SICU patients who were later deemed candidates for palliative care by their medical team.