LAUSR

Goal: Providing hospital-based compassionate end of life (EOL) care for children and their families is essential part of pediatric care, but there is limited evidence about systematic approaches. Our objective was to determine the effectiveness of a quality improvement (QI) project aimed at improving care for hospitalized children at EOL using an EOL algorithm. The primary goal was to increase the involvement of ancillary team members, including care coordination and palliative care teams. The secondary goal of the algorithm was to reduce transfers to the intensive care unit (ICU) thus allowing patients and their families to remain on the medical unit with familiar providers. Methodology: A multidisciplinary, hospital-wide group created an evidence-based EOL algorithm to give providers clinical decision …