Hospitalized people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) may benefit from specialty palliative care services (sPCS).
Objective:
To describe access to in-hospital sPCS for people with ALS (pALS).
Methods:
We compared years 2010–2011 to 2018–2019, and conducted trend analyses of sPCS from 2010 to 2019 stratified by race.
Results:
Of 103,193 pALS admitted during the study period, 13,885 (13.4%) received sPCS. Rates of sPCS increased over time (2010–2011: 8.9% vs. 2018–2019: 16.6%; p < 0.01). From 2010 to 2019, there was an increase in sPCS (p-trend<0.01) for all studied racial groups.
Conclusions:
Access to palliative care has increased over time for pALS admitted to hospitals in the United States.
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