Little is known about the pattern of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization and infection in hospitalized palliative care (PC) patients. We reviewed 854 admissions for 289 patients with advanced cancer managed by a PC service in a tertiary care hospital. The MRSA screening was performed at least once in 228 (79%) patients, and 21 (9%) of them were MRSA positive. Other cultures were done in 251 (86.8%) patients, and 8 (3%) patients were MRSA positive. The total number of MRSA-positive admissions was 28 (3%), with a median admission duration of 8 days. A substantial proportion of hospitalized PC patients with cancer are MRSA positive. Research is required to study the impact of infection control measures on the quality of PC delivered to MRSA-positive terminally ill patients in hospitals.

Hospital length of stay (LoS) may be used to assess end-of-life care aggressiveness and health care delivery efficiency. We describe the terminal hospitalization LoS of patients with cancer managed by a hospital-based palliative care (PC) program comprising a palliative care consultation (PCC) service and an inpatient palliative care unit (PCU). A total of 328 in-hospital cancer deaths were divided into 2 groups. The PCU group included patients admitted by the PC team directly to the PCU. The PCC group included patients admitted by other specialties and referred to the PCC team. The LoS of the PCU group was significantly shorter than that of the PCC group (9.9 [±9.4] vs 17.8 [±19.7] days, respectively; P < .001). Direct terminal hospitalization to PCU is not associated with longer LoS among cancer deaths managed by a hospital-based PC service.