What happens during early outpatient palliative care consultations for persons with newly diagnosed advanced cancer? A qualitative analysis of provider documentation

A Rapid Review of Interventions to Improve Care for People Who Are Medically Underserved with Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetic Retinopathy, and Lung Cancer

In the United States, patients with chronic conditions experience disparities in health outcomes across the care continuum. Among patients with multiple sclerosis, diabetic retinopathy, and lung cancer, there is a lack of evidence summarizing interventions to improve care and decrease these disparities. The aim of this rapid literature review was to identify interventions among patients with these chronic conditions to improve health and reduce disparities in screening, diagnosis, access to treatment and specialists, adherence, and retention in care. Using structured search terms in PubMed and Web of Science, we completed a rapid review of studies published in the prior five years conducted in the United States on our subject of focus. We screened the retrieved articles for inclusion and extracted data using a standard spreadsheet. The data were synthesized across clinical conditions and summarized. Screening was the most common point in the care continuum with documented interventions. Most studies we identified addressed interventions for patients with lung cancer, with half as many studies identified for patients with diabetic retinopathy, and few studies identified for patients with multiple sclerosis. Almost two-thirds of the studies focused on patients who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color. Interventions with evidence evaluating implementation in multiple conditions included telemedicine, mobile clinics, and insurance subsidies, or expansion. Despite documented disparities and a focus on health equity, a paucity of evidence exists on interventions that improve health outcomes among patients who are medically underserved with multiple sclerosis, diabetic retinopathy, and lung cancer.

Outpatient Palliative Care Service Involvement: A Five-Year Experience from a Tertiary Hospital in Switzerland

Background

The value of early integration of palliative care has been demonstrated increasingly for the past years in both oncological and nononcological diseases. Outpatient palliative care services might represent a feasible approach to implement supportive care in early disease. In this study, we aimed at evaluating which patients use and benefit from outpatient palliative care services, which symptoms are addressed most, and which support services are installed in this early phase of disease.

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed the entire patient collective of a recently developed palliative care outpatient clinic within the leading university hospital in Switzerland for a period of five years. Sociodemographics, symptoms, and information on disease as well as patient-reported outcomes were retrieved from the electronic patient files. Demographic and clinical data were analyzed by descriptive statistics between groups and survival was analyzed by means of Kaplan-Meier estimates and log-rank test.

Results

We report on 642 consultations of 363 patients between 2016 and 2020. Patients had a mean of 1.8 visits (range 1-10), with n = 340 patients (93.7%) of patients suffering from an oncological disease. Overall symptom load was high, with n = 401 (73.7%) of patient-reported outcomes reporting two or more symptoms. Distress levels of 5 or higher were reported in n = 78 (30.4%) of available patient-reported outcomes. Independent of the origin of primary disease and the length of the disease trajectory, patients were referred to the palliative care service in median only four months before death.

Conclusion

We identify high symptom load and distress in the outpatient palliative patient population. Patients benefitted from supportive medication, improvement of ambulatory support systems and advance care planning, and more than one-third of patients remained in follow-up, indicating a good acceptance of the service. Overcoming the overall late referral could, however, further increase the quality of life at earlier stages of disease.

The Magnitude and Effects of Early Integration of Palliative Care Into Oncology Service Among Adult Advanced Cancer Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background

Palliative care (PC) has a positive effect on symptom burden, quality of life, psychosocial communication, prognostic understanding, mood, and quality of care at the end of life of patients with advanced cancer.

Objectives

To investigate the timing of the first palliative consultation and referral of advanced cancer patients to the palliative care service and their determinants at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSHRC), Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Subjects and methods

A retrospective cohort study was conducted at KFSHRC. It included advanced cancer patients who died between January 1, 2019 and Jun 30, 2020. The dependent variable of primary interest is the timing of PC consultation and the timing of PC referral. The independent variables included age, sex, marital status, nationality, date of death, types of cancer, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), palliative performance status (PPS), palliative prognostic index (PPI), code status (do not resuscitate [DNR]), the severity of symptoms (assessed by the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System - Revised [ESAS-r]), referral to home health care (HHC), referral to long-term care (LTC), referral to interdisciplinary team (IDT), length of survival after the first PC consultation, length of survival after the referral to the PC service, length of hospital stay, frequency of emergency room (ER) visits and hospital admission in the last year before death, and involvement in bereavement with advanced care planning (ACP) services.

Results

Of the 210 advanced cancer patients, 109 (51.9%) were male, and their ages ranged between 18 and 90 years. More than half of patients (56.7%) had a history of PC consultation. Among them, PC consultation was described as late in 60.5% of patients. Concerning the timing of palliative care referral among advanced cancer patients, it was too late and much too late among 25.7% and 58.1% of them, respectively. Patients who visited ER more frequently (≥3 times) (p=0.014) and those who referred to HHC (p=0.005) were more likely to consult PC early compared to their counterparts. Length of survival was significantly higher among patients who reported early PC consultation compared to those without PC consultation and those with late PC consultation, p<0.001. Referral to PC for both transfer of care and symptom management was associated with earlier PC consultation, p=0.021. Patients who were admitted to the hospital three times or more were less likely to be much too late referred to PC services, p=0.046. Also, patients who were not referred to long-term care or home health care were more likely to be referred to PC services much too late, p<0.001. Among 28.8% of patients whose PPS ranged between 30% and 50% compared to 14.9% of those whose PPS ranged between 10% and 20% expressed too late referral time to PC, p=0.040.

Conclusion

In a considerable proportion of terminal cancer patients, palliative care was consulted late, and the timing of palliative care referral was too late/much too late among most of those consulted palliative care. Length of survival was higher among patients who reported early PC consultation and who with ideal referral time to PC services than others. Therefore, future considerations to facilitate early integration of palliative care in cancer patients are highly recommended through mainly improving staff education in communication skills and palliative care approach.

Palliative Integration Into Ambulatory Oncology: An Advance Care Planning Quality Improvement Project

Advance care planning (ACP) is essential to ensuring that patient-centered end-of-life goals are respected if a health crisis occurs. Advanced practitioner barriers to ACP include insufficient time and limited confidence in discussions. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to increase advanced cancer patients' electronic health record (EHR) documented surrogate decision maker and ACP documentation by 25% over 8 weeks. A secondary aim was to decrease patients' decisional conflict scores (DCS) related to life-sustaining treatment preferences after a clinical nurse specialist (CNS)-led ACP session. Using the define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC) process of quality improvement methodology, an interprofessional team led by a palliative CNS fostered practice change by (a) incorporating a patient self-administered Supportive Care and Communication Questionnaire (SCCQ) to standardize the ACP assessment, (b) creating an EHR nursing and provider documentation template, (c) offering advanced cancer patients a palliative CNS consultation for ACP review and advance directive completion, and (d) evaluating patients' DCS through the four-item SURE tool. Of 126 participants provided with the SCCQ, 90 completed the document, resulting in a 71% return rate. Among the completed SCCQs, 37% (n = 33) requested a CNS consultation, with 76% (n = 25) returning for the ACP session. The CNS intervention yielded an average reduction of 1.4 points in SURE tool findings, a statistically significant decrease determined by a paired sample t-test. The project's interprofessional collaboration promoted a system-wide standardized ACP process throughout ambulatory, acute, and post-hospital settings.

Inpatient palliative care utilization for patients with brain metastases

Introduction

Given the high symptom burden and complex clinical decision making associated with a diagnosis of brain metastases (BM), specialty palliative care (PC) can meaningfully improve patient quality of life. However, no prior study has formally evaluated patient-specific factors associated with PC consultation among BM patients.

Methods

We examined the rates of PC consults in a cohort of 1303 patients with BM admitted to three tertiary medical centers from October 2015 to December 2018. Patient demographics, surgical status, 30-day readmission, and death data were collected via retrospective chart review. PC utilization was assessed by identifying encounters for which an inpatient consult to PC was placed. Statistical analyses were performed to compare characteristics and outcomes between patients who did and did not receive PC consults.

Results

We analyzed 1303 patients admitted to the hospital with BM. The average overall rate of inpatient PC consultation was 19.6%. Rates of PC utilization differed significantly by patient race (17.5% in White/Caucasian vs 26.0% in Black/African American patients, P = .0014). Patients who received surgery during their admission had significantly lower rates of PC consultation (3.9% vs 22.4%, P < .0001). Patients who either died during their admission or were discharged to hospice had significantly higher rates of PC than those who were discharged home or to rehabilitation (P < .0001).

Conclusions

In our dataset, PC consultation rates varied by patient demographic, surgical status, discharging service, and practice setting. Further work is needed to identify the specific barriers to optimally utilizing specialty PC in this population.

Early palliative intervention: effects on patient care satisfaction in advanced cancer

OBJECTIVE

In a cluster-randomised controlled trial of early palliative care (EPC) in advanced cancer, EPC was robustly associated with increased patient satisfaction with care. The present study evaluated mediational mechanisms underlying this EPC effect, including improved physical and psychological symptoms and quality of life, as well as relationships with healthcare providers and preparation for end of life.

METHOD

Participants with advanced cancer (n=461) completed measures at baseline and then monthly to 4 months. Mediational analyses, using a robust bootstrapping approach, focused on 3-month and 4-month follow-up data.

RESULTS

At 3 months, EPC decreased psychological symptoms, which resulted in greater satisfaction either directly (β_{indirect effect}=0.05) or through greater quality of life (β_{indirect effect}=0.02). At 4 months, EPC increased satisfaction through improved quality of life (β_{indirect effect}=0.08). Physical symptom management showed no significant mediational effects at either time point. Better relationships with healthcare providers consistently mediated the EPC effect on patient satisfaction at 3 and 4 months, directly (β_{indirect effect}=0.13-0.16) and through reduced psychological symptoms and/or improved quality of life (β_{indirect effect}=0.00-0.02). At 4 months, improved preparation for end-of-life mediated EPC effects on satisfaction by enhancing quality of life (β_{indirect effect}=0.01) or by reducing psychological symptoms and thereby increasing quality of life (β_{indirect effect}=0.02).

CONCLUSION

EPC increases satisfaction with care in advanced cancer by attending effectively to patients' emotional distress and quality of life, enhancing collaborative relationships with healthcare providers, and addressing concerns about preparation for end-of-life.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

NCT01248624.

Early palliative care integration trial: consultation content and interaction dynamics

OBJECTIVES

Evidence for the positive impact of the early integration of palliative care (EPC) continues to grow. Less is known about how EPC improves patient and family outcomes, including the content of EPC consultations. Therefore, we aimed to better understand the content of EPC consultations including areas addressed, percentage covered per area and interaction style.

METHODS

As part of a trial in which EPC in addition to oncology care was compared with oncology care alone, we audio recorded 10 interventions. The palliative care team led the interventions using SENS, a conversation structure, which stands for: Symptoms, End-of-life decision-making, Network and Support. We employed two approaches to analysis: the Roter interaction analysis system (RIAS) to analyse interaction dynamics and SENS as a framework for content analysis.

RESULTS

Physician-patient communication covered 91% of the interaction. According to RIAS, the consultations were evenly dominated between physicians and patients (ratio=1.04) and highly patient-centred (ratio=1.26). Content wise, rapport was the largest category covering 27% of the consultation, followed by decision-making (21%) and by symptom assessment/management (17%) including 8.1% for physical symptoms and 5.4% for psychosocial aspects. Network discussions covered 17%, and lastly, support for the family 7%.

CONCLUSIONS

EPC consultations cover a variety of end-of-life topics while putting a high value in establishing rapport, developing a relationship with patients, and on providing reassurance and positive emotional talk. EPC consultations using predefined structures may guarantee that a minimum of important aspects are addressed in a way in which the relationship with the patient remains at the centre.

Increasing Critical Care Nurse Engagement of Palliative Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic

BACKGROUND

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has led to escalating infection rates and associated deaths worldwide. Amid this public health emergency, the urgent need for palliative care integration throughout critical care settings has never been more crucial.

OBJECTIVE

To promote palliative care engagement in critical care; share palliative care resources to support critical care nurses in alleviating suffering during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic; and make recommendations to strengthen nursing capacity to deliver high-quality, person-centered critical care.

METHODS

Palliative and critical care literature and practice guidelines were reviewed, synthesized, and translated into recommendations for critical care nursing practice.

RESULTS

Nurses are ideally positioned to drive full integration of palliative care into the critical care delivery for all patients, including those with coronavirus disease 2019, given their relationship-based approach to care, as well as their leadership and advocacy roles. Recommendations include the promotion of healthy work environments and prioritizing nurse self-care in alignment with critical care nursing standards.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses should focus on a strategic integration of palliative care, critical care, and ethically based care during times of normalcy and of crisis. Primary palliative care should be provided for each patient and family, and specialist services sought, as appropriate. Nurse educators are encouraged to use these recommendations and resources in their curricula and training. Palliative care is critical care. Critical care nurses are the frontline responders capable of translating this holistic, person-centered approach into pragmatic services and relationships throughout the critical care continuum.

End-of-Life Nutrition Considerations: Attitudes, Beliefs, and Outcomes

OBJECTIVE

To assess the physiological outcomes and interpersonal influences that should be considered when making the decision to provide artificial nutrition and hydration (AN&H) for patients in hospice/palliative programs.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted using items from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols 2015 checklist. Distinct search strategies were employed to find primary research articles that addressed: General health outcomes of artificial nutrition and hydration interventions and nutrition therapy interventions (n = 16), nutrition-related symptoms in end-of-life care (n = 8), and the attitudes of patients and providers toward artificial nutrition and hydration (n = 21).

RESULTS

The effect of AN&H on health outcomes, quality-of-life measures and nutrition-related symptoms is limited and may vary by patient setting and diagnosis. In the absence of consistent evidence for specific health outcomes, decisions regarding AN&H should be made in context of the desires and beliefs of a patient, their family, and their medical providers. These beliefs may not be consistent with likely outcomes or may be inconsistent between individuals involved in the decision-making process, and individuals of different cultures or geographic regions may approach AN&H decisions from different perspectives. To help navigate the intersection of nutrition-related health outcomes and patient/provider beliefs, palliative care teams may employ a variety of strategies for approaching the decision-making process, and may benefit from specific involvement of a Registered Dietitian to help contribute to or lead these discussions.

Natural Language Processing to Assess Palliative Care and End-of-Life Process Measures in Patients With Breast Cancer With Leptomeningeal Disease

BACKGROUND

Palliative care consultation during serious life-limiting illness can reduce symptom burden and improve quality of care. However, quantifying the impact of palliative care is hindered by the limitations of manual chart review and administrative coding.

OBJECTIVES

Using novel natural language process (NLP) techniques, we examined associations between palliative care consultations and performance on nationally endorsed metrics for high-quality end-of-life (EOL) care in patients with leptomeningeal disease (LMD) secondary to metastatic breast cancer.

METHODS

Patients with breast cancer with LMD were identified using administrative billing codes and NLP review of magnetic resonance imaging reports at 2 tertiary care centers between 2010 and 2016. Next, NLP was used to review clinical notes to (1) determine the presence of palliative care consultations and (2) determine the performance of process measures associated with high-quality EOL care, including discussions of goals of care, code status limitations, and hospice. Associations between palliative care consultation and documentation of EOL process measures were assessed using logistic regression.

RESULTS

We identified 183 cases of LMD. Median age was 56 (interquartile range [IQR]: 46-64) years and median survival was 150 days (IQR: 67-350). Within 6 months of diagnosis, 88.5% of patients had documentation of ≥1 process measure, including discussions of goals of care (63.4%), code status limitations (62.8%), or hospice (72.1%). Palliative care consultation was a predictor of subsequent documentation of goals of care (odds ratio [OR], 3.15; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.58-6.27) and hospice discussions (OR, 4.61; 95% CI, 2.12-10.03).

CONCLUSION

Palliative care involvement is associated with increased performance of EOL process measures in patients with breast cancer with LMD.

Forging a New Frontier: Providing Palliative Care to People With Cancer in Rural and Remote Areas

Mounting evidence supports oncology organizations' recommendations of early palliative care as a cancer care best practice for patients with advanced cancer and/or high symptom burden. However, few trials on which these best practices are based have included rural and remote community-based oncology care. Therefore, little is known about whether early palliative care models are applicable in these low-resource areas. This literature synthesis identifies some of the challenges of integrating palliative care in rural and remote cancer care. Prominent themes include being mindful of rural culture; adapting traditional geographically based specialty care delivery models to under-resourced rural practices; and using novel palliative care education delivery methods to increase community-based health professional, layperson, and family palliative expertise to account for limited local specialty palliative care resources. Although there are many limitations, many rural and remote communities also have strengths in their capacity to provide high-quality care by capitalizing on close-knit, committed community practitioners, especially if there are receptive local palliative and hospice care champions. Hence, adapting palliative care models, using culturally appropriate novel delivery methods, and providing remote education and support to existing community providers are promising advances to aid rural people to manage serious illness and to die in place. Reformulating health policy and nurturing academic-community partnerships that support best practices are critical components of providing early palliative care for everyone everywhere.

Patients with advanced cancer: when, why, and how to refer to palliative care services

Palliative care (pc) is a fundamental component of the cancer care trajectory. Its primary focus is on "the quality of life of people who have a life-threatening illness, and includes pain and symptom management, skilled psychosocial, emotional and spiritual support" to patients and loved ones. Palliative care includes, but is not limited to, end-of-life care. The benefits of early introduction of pc services in the care trajectory of patients with advanced cancer are well known, as indicated by improved quality of life, satisfaction with care, and a potential for increased survival. In turn, early referral of patients with advanced cancer to pc services is strongly recommended. So when, how, and why should patients with advanced cancer be referred to pc services? In this article, we summarize evidence to address these questions about early pc referral: ▪ What are the known benefits?▪ What is the "ideal" pc referral timing?▪ What are the barriers?▪ Which strategies can optimize integration of pc into oncology care?▪ Which communication tools can facilitate skillful introduction of pc to patients?

Interprofessional palliative care education for pediatric oncology clinicians: an evidence-based practice review

OBJECTIVE

Clinician education and expertise in palliative care varies widely across pediatric oncology programs. The purpose of this evidence-based practice review was to identify interprofessional palliative care education models applicable to pediatric oncology settings as well as methods for evaluating their impact on clinical practice.

RESULTS

Based on a literature search in PubMed, CINAHL and Embase, which identified 13 articles meeting inclusion/exclusion criteria, the following three themes emerged: (1) establishment of effective modalities and teaching strategies, (2) development of an interprofessional palliative care curriculum, and (3) program evaluation to assess impact on providers' self-perceived comfort in delivering palliative care and patient/family perceptions of care received. Remarkably, health professionals reported receiving limited palliative care training, with little evidence of systematic evaluation of practice changes following training completion. Improving palliative care delivery was linked to the development and integration of an interprofessional palliative care curriculum. Suggested evaluation strategies included: (1) eliciting patient and family feedback, (2) standardizing care delivery measures, and (3) evaluating outcomes of care.