ReviewBMJ supportive & palliative care2015
Development of a tool for defining and identifying the dying patient in hospital: Criteria for Screening and Triaging to Appropriate aLternative care (CriSTAL).
Review in BMJ supportive & palliative care, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Outcomes of deprescribing for people with life-limiting conditions: A systematic review.Palliative medicine · 2026Pooled it
- A Systematic Review of the Development and Implementation of Needs-Based Palliative Care Tools in Heart Failure and Chronic Respiratory Disease.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Identifying older adults with frailty approaching end-of-life: A systematic review.Palliative medicine · 2021Pooled it
- A cost-consequence analysis of a nudge intervention to improve hospital care of older people at the end of life: results from a stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial.Age and ageing · 2025Trial
- Trial
- Process evaluation of a tailored nudge intervention to promote appropriate care and treatment of older patients at the end-of-life.BMC geriatrics · 2024Trial
- Impact of a prospective feedback loop on care review activities in older patients at the end of life. A stepped-wedge randomised trial.BMC geriatrics · 2022Trial
- Evaluating Palliative Care Needs in Patients with Advanced Non-Malignant Chronic Conditions: An Umbrella Review of Needs Assessment Tools.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Improving patient reported experience in inpatients with palliative care needs: a pre-post quality improvement study.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Reflexive thematic analysis of emergency department medical records of dementia patients regarding the identification of last days of life.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Utilising Palliative Care Expertise in Critically Ill Patients: Opportunities to Improve Outcomes and Experiences.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Implications of assisted dying for nursing practice.Nursing ethics · 2025Article
- Prevalence of Value-Based Care for Older People with Dementia Likely to Be Nearing End of Life: A Hospital Retrospective Cohort.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine and Indian Association of Palliative Care Expert Consensus and Position Statements for End-of-life and Palliative Care in the Intensive Care Unit.Indian journal of critical care medicine : peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine · 2024Article
- Comparison and combined use of NEWS2 and GCS scores in predicting mortality in stroke and traumatic brain injury: a multicenter retrospective study.Frontiers in neurology · 2024Article
- Predicting End-of-Life in a Hospital Setting.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
- Development and preliminary usability testing of an electronic conversation guide incorporating patient values and prognostic information in preparation for older people's decision-making near the end of life.Internet interventions · 2023Article
- Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of palliative care in natural experiments: a systematic review.BMJ supportive & palliative care · 2023Article
- Comorbidity-adjusted NEWS predicts mortality in suspected patients with COVID-19 from nursing homes: Multicentre retrospective cohort study.Journal of advanced nursing · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo develop a screening tool to identify elderly patients at the end of life and quantify the risk of death in hospital or soon after discharge for to minimise prognostic uncertainty and avoid potentially harmful and futile treatments.
designNarrative literature review of definitions, tools and measurements that could be combined into a screening tool based on routinely available or obtainable data at the point of care to identify elderly patients who are unavoidably dying at the time of admission or at risk of dying during hospitalisation. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Variables and thresholds proposed for the Criteria for Screening and Triaging to Appropriate aLternative care (CriSTAL screening tool) were adopted from existing scales and published research findings showing association with either in-hospital, 30-day or 3-month mortality.
resultsEighteen predictor instruments and their variants were examined. The final items for the new CriSTAL screening tool included: age ≥65; meeting ≥2 deterioration criteria; an index of frailty with ≥2 criteria; early warning score >4; presence of ≥1 selected comorbidities; nursing home placement; evidence of cognitive impairment; prior emergency hospitalisation or intensive care unit readmission in the past year; abnormal ECG; and proteinuria.
conclusionsAn unambiguous checklist may assist clinicians in reducing uncertainty patients who are likely to die within the next 3 months and help initiate transparent conversations with families and patients about end-of-life care. Retrospective chart review and prospective validation will be undertaken to optimise the number of prognostic items for easy administration and enhanced generalisability. Development of an evidence-based tool for defining and identifying the dying patient in hospital: CriSTAL.
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