Huntsville has a community Palliative Care Team (PCT) that consists of 3 family physicians, specializing in palliative care (PC), 2 PC nurses and a PC social worker. The PCT manages a case load of approximately 100 patients consistently throughout the year.

This project aims to improve the care that palliative patients receive. Our goal is to increase communication and ensure that the emergency department (ED) and PCT can work together to provide the best care possible for palliative patients and their families.  We want to see if ensuring the ED physicians know immediately that PC patients are cared for through the PCT will make seamless health care for palliative patients including the fact that they can contact the PCT 24/7 to access patient history, goals of care and patient directives easier.



The system, for identifying palliative patients in the ED, is currently lacking. Therefore, the electronic flagging of patient files, combined with an increased partnership of the PCT and the ED, would improve patient care while maintaining patient goals of care through improved communication and 24/7 availability of the PCT to the ED physicians.