Shared care is a model for patients with stable prostate cancer

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Primary Care Medicine
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Prostate cancer (PC) follow-up traditionally occurs in specialized hospital departments.
• Barriers to transferring PC follow-up to general practice include limited GP experience and uncertainty about their capabilities.
• A shared care model aims to address these challenges by integrating primary and specialized care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a shared care model for prostate cancer follow-up and treatment.
• To assess the feasibility and patient satisfaction associated with transferring PC follow-up to general practitioners (GPs).
• To identify key factors for successful transfer of long-term follow-up responsibilities.

Main Methods:

• A Steering Committee collaborated with healthcare professionals to design a shared care strategy.
• An action plan included model development, implementation, re-referral procedures, and evaluation.
• Study included 2,585 prostate cancer patients, with 530 transferred to GP follow-up.

Main Results:

• The primary reasons for not transferring patients were patient preference (33%) and disease progression (33%).
• A significant majority of patients (96%) reported high satisfaction with the transition to hospital course closure.
• The shared care model demonstrated successful patient transfer with high initial satisfaction.

Conclusions:

• Transferring long-term follow-up of prostate cancer patients to general practice is feasible.
• The developed shared care model supports successful patient transfer and high patient satisfaction.
• This approach can optimize healthcare resource utilization and patient convenience.