Prevalence of patients with unmet palliative care needs in a University Emergency Department in Germany – a cross-sectional screening study

A significant proportion of patients presenting to the ED of a university hospital appear to have unmet palliative care needs according to P-CaRES. However, only a small fraction of these patients were known to have pre-existing outpatient palliative care support which could indicate a considerable gap in palliative care provision. Promoting the integrating of palliative care into emergency medicine could substantially enhance patient care by promoting holistic, patient-centred approaches that extend beyond acute medical treatment and facilitate the early implementation of outpatient palliative care services.