Is inpatient chemotherapy overutilized?

Authors

null

Natalie S Berger

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY

Natalie S Berger, Giulia Petrone, Chrystal Ann Landry, Hsin-hui Huang, Cardinale B. Smith

Organizations

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, Icahn School of Medicine/Mount Sinai St. Luke's-West Hospital, New York, NY

Research Funding

No funding received
None.

Background: Inpatient palliative chemotherapy has been associated with more aggressive end of life care, reduced utilization of hospice services and decreased quality of life. The decision to administer chemotherapy in the inpatient setting is not always standardized which may lead to overutilization. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of all patients who received inpatient chemotherapy at an Academic center during the year 2016. Patients were stratified by solid tumor (ST) versus hematologic malignancies (HM) and assessed for the urgency of chemotherapy. We also evaluated response to treatment, death within 30 days of chemotherapy administration, and other qualitative and quantitative variables. We used descriptive statistics and odds ratios (OR) were estimated from logistic regression models. Results: We identified 141 patients; 47% HM. Select significant patient outcomes (p-value ≤0.05) are summarized in Table. At the time of admission, the majority of ST patients had stage 4 cancer (71%) with a poorer performance status (p= 0.0005) and were more often admitted due to symptoms related to their cancer (p<0.0001). HM patients were more likely to be directly admitted for chemotherapy (p<0.0001). Among ST patients, 29% received chemotherapy because the admission coincided with a non-urgent planned cycle compared to 11% of HM. Reason for inpatient chemotherapy was documented as urgent for 94% HM and 67% ST patients. ST patients were more likely to receive a palliative care consult (65% vs 24%; p<0.001) and to die within 30 days of index admission (15.8% vs 6.2%; p=0.019). In the adjusted analysis, the most important factor associated with urgent chemotherapy was the cancer type (OR: 8.25, 95% CI 2.13-31.97, p=0.002). Conclusions: Our study indicates that there is an overutilization of inpatient chemotherapy in ST patients as well as increased mortality within 30 days of inpatient chemotherapy administration compared to HM. The administration of inpatient chemotherapy can be avoided in many cases which can lead to improved quality of life and cost savings. Creation of a standardized algorithm on the appropriateness of inpatient chemotherapy may be a useful tool to guide decision making.

Solid N=75 (%)Hematologic N=66 (%)P-value
KPS.0005
≤50%38 (51)13 (20)
Reason for admission<.0001
Symptoms/Cancer
Complications/POD
47 (63)24 (36)
Direct admission for chemo18 (24)36 (55)
Reason for inpatient chemotherapy.0005
Admitted during planned cycle22 (29)7 (11)
Inpatient chemo required16 (21)6 (9)
Urgent indication - Yes50 (67)62 (94)<.0001

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2020 ASCO Quality Care Symposium

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

On-Demand Poster Session: Quality, Safety, and Implementation Science

Track

Quality, Safety, and Implementation Science

Sub Track

Quality Improvement Research and Implementation Science

Citation

J Clin Oncol 38, 2020 (suppl 29; abstr 215)

DOI

10.1200/JCO.2020.38.29_suppl.215

Abstract #

215

Poster Bd #

Online Only

Abstract Disclosures

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