Palliative Care Delivery in Inpatient Post-Acute Care Setting: A Scoping Review

Post-acute care represents a critical component of healthcare delivery. These settings serve patients who are medically stable enough to leave acute hospitals but require continued professional support before returning home or transitioning to alternative placements. However, the lack of standardized definitions of PAC settings across healthcare systems creates significant challenges for research, policy development, and quality improvement initiatives. The PAC landscape has evolved dramatically in recent years. While these settings help patients recover and free up hospital beds, as the population served by the health care system is older and more medically complex, the reality is that significant portion of patients who are discharged to PAC will not regain sufficient independence to return home. Instead, they require alternative placement such as long-term care, with some needing palliative care services. Wait times for long-term care can extend for months or even years, leading healthcare systems to create transitional care units for stable patients awaiting placement. What began as temporary solutions have become a long-term residence for many patients, with numbers continuing to grow as populations age and family caregiver availability decreases. This patient populations can benefit from PC assessments and interventions, which can impact their illness trajectory, even when the primary treatment goal focuses on recovery and longevity. We'll examine PC delivery in inpatient PAC settings.