Overview
The aim of this study is to reduce the suffering in intensive care through palliative care consultations.
Description
This project investigates the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of palliative care consultations in the Intensive care unit. Charité will implement the Working Package 2 "Europe-wide harmonized and recommended palliative care practice for ICU" of the approved HORIZON funding application EPIC, to which this ethics application refers.
An accompanying anonymous employee survey (doctors/nurses) is conducted once in the intervention phase and once in the control phase in all study centers (see secondary endpoints 57-68 and 71).
Eligibility
- Patients
Inclusion Criteria:
- Patients in ICU who can give consent and those who can not (via their authorized representative or legal guardian, also possible with delayed consent)
- From 18 years
- The leading cause of critical illness is not cancer
- New admission on the participating ICU > 72h
- Assessment of the need for palliative care by the in-charge physi-cian of the ICU, because (1) there is a significant disagreement about ICU treatment or (2) because the physician considers ther-apy limitations for the patient or (3) the physician considers a benefit from specialized PC consultation for ICU physician, nurse, or patient or family.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Patient is moribund and is expected to die within the next 24h
Study cohort relatives:
Inclusion criteria:
- At least one relative(s) of a patient. This may or may not be the legal representative, depending on national legislation.
Exclusion criteria:
- Refusal by the relative
- Refusal of the patient to participate in the intervention study
- <18 years of age
Cohort of employees:
Inclusion criteria
- Employed on the ITS as a doctor/nurse
- Employed in the clinical center as a member of the palliative care consultation service
Exclusion criterion Refusal to participate