Impact of Home-Based Pediatric Palliative Care on Hospital and Emergency Department Utilization at a Single Institution

Background: There is limited data on home-based pediatric palliative care (PPC) demographics and utilization outcomes.Objective: Describe who receives home-based PPC and compare emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and hospital days admitted in the one year before and after initiation of home-based PPC.Design: Exploratory retrospective medical chart review.Settings/Subjects: Patients, from birth to their 21st birthday, who received home-based PPC during January 1, 2015 to July 31, 2016 at a single site.Measurements: Demographics and hospital utilization were extracted from the medical chart.Results: N = 154. Comparing one year before and after initiation of home-based PPC, the median number of hospitalizations decreased from 2 to 1 (p < 0.001), and the median total number of hospital days admitted decreased from 16 to 4 days (p < 0.001).Conclusions: Children enrolled in a home-based PPC program experienced a significant decrease in the number of hospital admissions and hospital days admitted.