Profile and evaluation of a palliative medicine consultation service within a tertiary teaching hospital in Sydney, Australia.

The role of a Palliative Medicine Liaison Consultation Service (LCS) in a large tertiary referral teaching hospital was examined by the prospective evaluation of 50 cases consecutively referred, together with the subsequent advice/recommendations (4 categories: pharmacological, non-pharmacological, clarification of goal of treatment, care system upon discharge) given during the consultation. The utility of a simple scoring system in quantifying the impact (4 grades: deleterious, no effect, positive, very positive) of the advice given on individual patient outcome, scored by both the referring team and the LCS, was studied. Eighty percent of cases had a cancer diagnosis. Pain was the most common symptom (50% cases) and "pain control" the most common referral reason cited. The median number of recommendations per patient was 3.0 and the majority (70%) concerned symptom control recommendations. Advice was given regarding discharge planning in nearly two-thirds of cases and such advice dealing with the care system upon discharge was judged by the referring team to have the highest positive impact of all recommendations. Nearly three-fourths of cases (74%) were graded by the referring team as having at least one recommendation with a positive impact. The simple scoring system used is demonstrably a useful outcome assessment tool. The LCS is perceived to have a positive impact on patient care in an acute hospital setting and appears to fill a gap in the multi-specialty provision of care.