Provider Perspectives and Access to Palliative Care: An American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) Survey

To explore provider perspectives about palliative care (PC) in head and neck cancer (HNC) care.

A 25-question electronic survey was disseminated to the membership of the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) from April 10, 2023, through June 13, 2023.

Respondents were most likely to refer to PC at symptomatic disease progression (52%) or terminal diagnosis (29%) rather than at initial diagnosis (17%). Participants less likely to refer to PC were less likely to refer to symptomatic progression (8% vs. 39%, p = 0.0006) or address advance directives (62% vs. 87%, p = 0.0406). Symptom burden questionnaires were used by only 29% of respondents. Discordance was identified between self-reported and actual access to local inpatient and outpatient PC services.

Barriers to PC identified include a lack of established optimal timing of PC referral, a perceived lack of local access to PC, and a lack of uniform standardized assessment of symptom burden.