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Palliative Care Team Perceptions of Standardized Palliative Care Referral Criteria Implementation in Hospital Settings.

Background: Standardized referral criteria can aid in identifying patients who would benefit from palliative care consultation. Little is known, however, on palliative care team members' perceptions of these criteria. Objective: Describe palliative care programs' reasons for referral criteria implementation and their perception of the benefits or disadvantages of its use. Design: Online survey of National Palliative Care Registry™ participants who use standardized referral criteria. Results: Fifty-three programs participated. Late referrals (64.2%) were the most commonly cited reason for referral criteria implementation. The majority (77.4%) felt that referral criteria lead to positive outcomes, including earlier referrals for palliative care-appropriate patients (71.7%). Increases in clinical volume and inappropriate referrals were identified as disadvantages of referral criteria use. Conclusion: Palliative care program members identified both benefits and disadvantages of referral criteria use, but felt they had mostly productive results.