Background: Patients are frequently admitted to hospital in the last year of life. Actively recognising patients at this stage gives the opportunity to plan future care.
Methods: We performed a cross-sectional survey of all acute medical and surgical inpatients at one tertiary hospital. Two simple screening tools, the indicators for a palliative approach and the surprise question identified a group of patients at greatly increased risk of dying over the next year.
Results: The one-year mortality of the study group was 27%, however was 52% and 65% for those identified at risk by the indicators for a palliative approach and surprise question tools. The surprise question had an area under the receiver operator curve value of .84.
Conclusion: These screening tools could be used to help clinicians identify hospital inpatients that would benefit from advance care planning and a tailored approach to their care.
Keywords: acute care; cross-sectional survey; last year of life; surprise question.