Aggressive Care At The End Of Life: A Study Of Practice Based Factors In Patients With Stage Iv Cancer

80Background: Numerous studies established that early utilization of palliative care-hospice services are beneficial to cancer patients. To reduce the incidence of aggressive care in terminal cancer patients, we conducted a quality improvement study to identify pertinent risk factors and develop interventions. Methods: Through chart review, we retrospectively identified patients with stage IV cancer that were followed by oncology clinic and were admitted to the University Hospital between 8/1/2015-10/31/15. For those patients who died during the last hospitalization or were discharged to hospice care, we obtained demographic, cancer related and practice related variables listed in Table. We used Mann Whitney U test and multivariable regression to find effects of factors related to length of stay (LOS) and cost of stay (COS). Results: Length of stay was significantly prolonged in those receiving chemotherapy within the past month (6 vs 3 p=0.035). Multivariate analyses found that patients with goals of car...