As SARS-CoV-2 cases surged in New York this past spring, one hospital system met the growing demand for palliative care in COVID-19 patients in acute care and emergency settings by training and redeploying psychiatry trainees, producing 100 consultations during a crisis period. Developers of this program wrote about their experience in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
Research shows that psychiatrists can play an important, complementary role in palliative care, but not many models have explored this in practice. Over a 45-day period in March and April, New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center saw an influx of 7,600 COVID-19 patients. Many were critically ill, and palliative care needs skyrocketed. Initial efforts to install a palliative care team at the emergency department and a proactive consultation model in the step-down units failed to meet demand for consults.
COVID-19 patients present unique challenges. Their clinical trajectory is less clear than those with cancer or other illnesses, Daniel Shalev, MD, a fellow in hospice and palliative medicine at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, and the study’s first author, said in an interview. “Ethical and systems issues around distribution of scarce resources may inflect patients’ and physicians’ responses,” Dr. Shalev said. “And families may not be able to be at the bedside with patients.”
To rapidly expand the palliative care workforce and meet patient needs, Dr. Shalev and colleagues recruited 16 psychiatry trainees from NYP, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Weill Cornell Medicine to work at NYP/Columbia University Irving Medical Center’s section of adult palliative medicine. Senior general psychiatry residents, child and adolescent psychiatry fellows, addiction psychiatry fellows, and postresidency T32 research fellows became part of a psychiatry-palliative care liaison team, offering psychosocial support and care goal strategies to patients and families.
Already well-versed in serious illness communication and psychosocial aspects of medical illness, the residents and fellows received additional training and education about SARS-CoV-2 and goals-of-care conversations. Child and adolescent psychiatry fellows participated in a communication workshop about the virus at Weill Cornell Medicine.
Working closely with the medical center’s palliative care service, the liaison team did consults around the clock at the ED under the supervision of a consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatrist specializing in primary palliative care skills. The team managed 16 cases a day during the peak of New York’s COVID-19 outbreak, operating on a rotating schedule of one to three shifts weekly. Some shifts took place remotely to reduce exposure to the virus.
“We were fortunate that New York Presbyterian was early and aggressive in ensuring all clinical staff had personal protective equipment” in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, Dr. Shalev said.
The C-L psychiatry coordinator served as a traffic controller of sorts, overseeing daily staffing changes, maintaining a psychiatry–palliative care liaison team–shared patient list, and ensuring follow-up and continuity on patient care. The rotating schedule freed up time for trainees to meet other research and outpatient obligations.
The liaison team held a meeting each morning and accompanied the adult palliative care service on its daily virtual rounds to help streamline case management and care coordination among the various palliative care channels. Modifications in personnel took place as cases started to recede. Overall, the team participated in 100 consultations.
The findings show that there is significant overlap in psychiatry and palliative care skill sets, Dr. Shalev said. “Furthermore, many patients benefiting from palliative care services have mental health needs. But there are gaps between psychiatry and palliative care, including a lack of collaboration and cross-training. Our model showed how easily our disciplines can work together to improve the care available to all patients,” he added.
Some things could have gone more smoothly. Working under the duress of a pandemic, project leaders didn’t have enough time to train and supervise the team about advanced symptom management. Psychiatry staff members also weren’t as comfortable with nonpsychiatric symptom management as serious illness communication and psychiatric symptom management. Dr. Shalev expects these growth areas to improve over time.
The model could easily translate to other facilities, he believes. As of this writing, the liaison team was transitioning to a longer-term assignment involving patients on mechanical ventilation and their families.
Dr. Maria I. Lapid
The program increased access to care during a time of limited resources,and successfully combined psychiatric and palliative services – two specialties that, at times, can have conflicting recommendations, noted Maria I. Lapid, MD, a professor of psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a faculty member of the Mayo Clinic Center for Palliative Medicine, who was not part of the study. As urgent training for psychiatric trainees proved useful in the current crisis, long-term psychiatric programs will need to explore and consider how to integrate palliative care training into the psychiatric curriculum.
“Not only is this relevant in the current pandemic, but this will continue to be relevant in the context of the rapidly aging population” in the United States, said Dr. Lapid.
Dr. Shalev and colleagues declared no conflicts of interest in their study. Their research received no funds or grants from public, commercial, or nonprofit agencies.
SOURCE: Shalev D et al. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2020 Jun 13. doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.06.009.
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