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Early palliative care (PC) improves outcomes for outpatients with advanced cancer. Its effect on hospitalized patients with cancer is unknown. Herein, we report on the influence of a novel, fully integrated inpatient medical oncology and PC partnership at a tertiary medical center during its first year of implementation.

We conducted a retrospective, longitudinal, pre- and postintervention cohort study at Duke University Hospital. Pre- and postintervention cohorts were defined as all patients admitted to the solid tumor inpatient service from September 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010, and September 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012, respectively. We extracted patient data, including demographics, cancer diagnosis, disease status, length of stay, intensive care unit transfer rate, discharge disposition, time to emergency department return, time to readmission, and 7- and 30-day emergency department return and …