Open AccessStandards, Guidelines, and Quality Measures for Successful Specialty Palliative Care Integration Into Oncology: Current Approaches and Future Directions
Author(s) -
Arif H. Kamal,
Claudia Bausewein,
David Casarett,
David C. Currow,
Deborah Dudgeon,
Irene J Higginson
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of clinical oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.482
H-Index - 548
eISSN - 1527-7755
pISSN - 0732-183X
DOI - 10.1200/jco.18.02440
Subject(s) - specialty , medicine , palliative care , quality (philosophy) , fidelity , radiation oncology , health care , oncology , nursing , family medicine , radiation therapy , philosophy , epistemology , economic growth , electrical engineering , economics , engineering
Although robust evidence demonstrates that specialty palliative care integrated into oncology care improves patient and health system outcomes, few clinicians are familiar with the standards, guidelines, and quality measures related to integration. These types of guidance outline principles of best practice and provide a framework for assessing the fidelity of their implementation. Significant advances in the understanding of effective methods and procedures to guide integration of specialty palliative care into oncology have led to a proliferation of guidance documents around the world, with several areas of commonality but also some key differences. Commonalities originate from a shared vision for integration; differences arise from diverse roles of palliative care specialists within cancer care globally. In this review we discuss three of the most cited standards/guidelines, as well as quality measures related to integrated palliative and oncology care. We also recommend changes to the quality measurement framework for palliative care and a new way to match palliative care services to patients with advanced cancer on the basis of care complexity and patient needs, irrespective of prognosis.