Utilization of Evidence-Based Telehealth for Routine Follow-Up Visits in Outpatient Palliative Care

Title: Utilization of Telehealth for Palliative Care Follow-up Visits Background: A vital part of cancer management is the implementation and integration of palliative care, to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for patients with serious chronic illness. However, access to palliative care services continues to be inadequate. There is a nationwide shortage of skilled palliative providers and the supply is insufficient to meet the growing demand. Purpose of Project: Implementing telehealth visits with palliative care patients with advanced cancer at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center has the potential to maintain patient satisfaction with symptom management, adequately address palliative needs, and improve quality of life. Evidence Based Interventions: The first evidence-based intervention is early initiation of outpatient palliative care referrals. The second evidence-based intervention will be telehealth visits for routine follow-ups with palliative care patients. Evaluation/Results: The overall project goal was achieved on 94.1% of the measures. When compared to the last office visit, the goal of equal or better was achieved on 16 out of the 17 measures. This goal was not met on 1 out of the 17 measures, with only 1 response less than or equal to 3/Neutral. Implications for Practice: Implementing telehealth has the potential to decrease patient wait times while maintaining equal symptom management, patient satisfaction, and quality of care. In addition, there is the potential to decrease travel burden for advanced cancer patients who have to attend frequent medical appointments. The utilization of telehealth in palliative care is a relatively new intervention that has the potential to make dramatic impacts in increasing accessibility to these specialty services. Conclusions: Implementing telehealth visits with palliative care patients with advanced cancer at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center Outpatient Palliative Care Team has the potential to improve or maintain patient satisfaction with symptom management and the overall visit, adequately address palliative needs, and improve quality of life