Prevalence of hospital-wide practices among 129 Pennsylvania hospitals
| NCP* end-of-life care domain | NQF† preferred practice | Level of evidence‡ | Proportion with practice | |
| Hospital practice | n (%) | |||
| Formal code policy or form for cardiopulmonary arrest | Structure/processes | Yes | C | 122 (95) |
| Clinical ethics consult service | Ethical/legal aspects | Yes | A | 106 (82) |
| Educational programme on palliative and end-of-life care to nurses | Structure/processes | Yes | B | 97 (75) |
| Educational programme on palliative and end-of-life care to doctors | Structure/processes | Yes | B | 79 (61) |
| Emergency department complies with out-of-hospital do-not-resuscitate orders | Structure/processes | Yes | C | 69 (54) |
| Bereavement programme | Psychological aspects | Yes | C | 63 (49) |
| Required code status discussion on admission | Structure/processes | Yes | C | 55 (43) |
| Palliative care consult service | Multiple domains | Yes | B | 47 (36) |
| Designated or “flex” palliative care beds | Structure/processes | No | C | 40 (31) |
↵* NCP: National Consensus Project's clinical practice guidelines for quality palliative care.
↵† NQF: National Quality Forum's national framework and preferred practices for palliative and hospice care quality,
↵‡ Estimated from an informal survey of national experts in end-of-life care; A, randomised clinical trial; B, observational study; C, expert recommendation.