Physicians have alleged that executives within Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare pressure hospital staff to persuade patients' families to initiate end-of-life care to boost metrics, according to claims made in a June 21 NBC News report.
Pushing end-of-life care can limit treatments for patients but curb in-hospital mortality rates and length of stay for the hospital operator.
The report is based on interviews with six nurses and 27 physicians who currently practice or formerly practiced at 16 HCA hospitals in seven states. All interviewed said HCA pushed palliative care to boost metrics.
An HCA spokesperson denied the contentions, according to the report. "Suggesting that medical care in HCA Healthcare hospitals is based on anything other than a physician's independent medical judgment of what is in the patient's best interest is untrue and wrong," the spokesperson said in a statement.
Internal hospital documents and texts support the nurses' and physicians' views, according to NBC News. One document, for example, describes palliative care consultations as the first step to hospice. Another stipulated how the palliative care coordinator recommends hospice options to family members, and if they agree, the patient will be discharged from inpatient status and shifted to hospice, the report said.
An internal HCA analysis from around three years ago showed that one-third of these consultations resulted in admission to internal hospice.
Becker's has reached out to HCA for comment on the claims made in the NBC News report and will update this article if more information becomes available.