Gynecologic Oncologist Views Influencing Referral to Outpatient Specialty Palliative Care.

Int J Gynecol Cancer

*Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA; †Division of Gynecologic Oncology and ‡Palliative Care, Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO; §Medical Education/Medical Humanities and Bioethics/Anthropology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; ∥Department of Medicine, School of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL; ¶Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC; #Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA; **Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; ††University of California Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, San Francisco, CA; and ‡‡Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health; and §§Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

Published: March 2017

Objective: Early specialty palliative care is underused for patients with advanced gynecologic malignancies. We sought to understand how gynecologic oncologists' views influence outpatient specialty palliative care referral to help inform strategies for improvement.

Methods/materials: We conducted a qualitative interview study at 6 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers with well-established outpatient palliative care services. Between September 2015 and March 2016, 34 gynecologic oncologists participated in semistructured telephone interviews focused on attitudes, experiences, and preferences related to outpatient specialty palliative care. A multidisciplinary team analyzed transcripts using constant comparative methods to inductively develop a coding framework. Through an iterative, analytic process, codes were classified, grouped, and refined into themes.

Results: Mean (SD) participant age was 47 (10) years. Mean (SD) interview length was 25 (7) minutes. Three main themes emerged regarding how gynecologic oncologists view outpatient specialty palliative care: (1) long-term relationships with patients is a unique and defining aspect of gynecologic oncology that influences referral, (2) gynecologic oncologists value palliative care clinicians' communication skills and third-party perspective to increase prognostic awareness and help negotiate differences between patient preferences and physician recommendation, and (3) gynecologic oncologists prefer specialty palliative care services embedded within gynecologic oncology clinics.

Conclusions: Gynecologic oncologists value longitudinal relationships with patients and use specialty palliative care to negotiate conflict surrounding prognostic awareness or the treatment plan. Embedding specialty palliative care within gynecologic oncology clinics may promote communication between clinicians and facilitate gynecologic oncologist involvement throughout the illness course.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5315630PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/IGC.0000000000000893DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

palliative care
40
specialty palliative
32
gynecologic oncologists
20
outpatient specialty
16
gynecologic
12
gynecologic oncology
12
palliative
10
care
10
gynecologic oncologist
8
specialty
8

Similar Publications

Background: Dementia is a life-changing condition for patients and caregivers. Response to a diagnosis often includes grief, shock, and despair. Unfortunately, evidence demonstrates inadequate use of person-centered communication practices during diagnostic disclosure, which adds to psychological distress.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: People with dementia have complex palliative care needs including psycho-social, physical and spiritual; however, they are often unmet. It is important to empower people with dementia, family caregivers and professionals to work together to better assess and monitor ongoing needs. This study aimed to co-design and test the feasibility of an integrated model of palliative dementia care to support holistic assessment and decision making for care in the community and care homes (assisted living facilities).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Persons living with dementia (PLWD) are twice as likely to use the emergency department (ED) and 1.5 times more likely to have an avoidable ED visit than elders without dementia. PLWD have greater comorbidity, incur higher charges, are admitted to hospitals at higher rates, return to EDs at higher rates, and have higher mortality after an ED visit than patients without dementia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Patients benefit from and appreciate the option to use telehealth with their providers. Such patient expectations have therefore led to new questions about the factors that affect providers' willingness to adopt telehealth as part of their clinical practice. We interviewed 19 physicians across four specialties with differential rates of telehealth use (Psychiatry, Anesthesiology, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation [PM&R], and Ophthalmology) to discern the barriers and incentives to telehealth adoption among physicians.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Hospital function-associated deaths among patients with cancer: a comprehensive national study using death records in Japan.

Jpn J Clin Oncol

January 2025

Center for Medical Liaison and Patient Support Service, Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, Institute of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8575, Japan.

Background: In Japan, about 70%-80% of cancer deaths occur in hospitals. The actual number of cancer patients who die in hospitals where palliative care is available is not clear. This study aimed to examine whether hospitals where cancer patients died offered palliative care.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!