Psychosocial Screening by Inpatient Palliative Care Teams: Patient Characteristics and Outcomes

<b>Context:</b> Palliative care (PC) teams are structured as interprofessional so that patient and caregiver distress can be assessed and treated across all bio-psychosocial-spiritual-cultural domains. The National Consensus Project's Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care call for all PC team members to be competent at <i>screening</i> patients for psychosocial needs so that urgent referrals can be appropriately triaged to a PC social worker for follow-up assessment and intervention. <b>Objectives:</b> To understand patient characteristics and PC outcomes of hospitalized patients who are screened for psychosocial needs and subsequently receive psychosocial interventions during inpatient PC consultation. <b>Methods:</b> We analyzed data from 44,586 inpatient palliative care consultations by 11 Palliative Care Quality Network (PCQN) teams across various states between 01/01/2017 and 12/31/2021. <b>Results:</b> Overall, 81.5% (n = 36,332) of consults included a screen for psychosocial needs. Of those patients with an identified psychosocial need, (n = 25,661), 91.6% (n = 23,503) received a psychosocial intervention. Patients who spoke Spanish were less likely to receive a psychosocial screen than English-speaking patients (OR = 0.62, CI = 0.54-0.71). Patients who screened positive for a psychosocial need and identified as Hispanic/Latinx were less likely than those who identified as White to receive a follow-up psychosocial intervention (OR = 0.68, 95% CI = 0.57-0.80). <b>Conclusion:</b> 4 out of 5 patients were screened for psychosocial needs. When a psychosocial need was identified, the majority of patients received a follow-up psychosocial intervention. There was disparate delivery of psychosocial care for patients who identify as Hispanic/Latinx and/or Spanish-speaking, indicating a key area for improvement and further exploration.