Early palliative care integration in advanced cancer: two institutional quality improvement projects

Guidelines recommend early palliative care (PC) integration in advanced cancers. This remains a challenge in countries with high cancer burden and limited PC access. We report the quality improvement (QI) journey aimed at improving timely PC integration in patients with advanced gastric, colorectal and lung cancers at two centres in India.

Centre A, an academic institution, and Centre B, a standalone cancer centre, used the A3 methodology for the QI process. An audit was conducted prior to August 2023 to establish the baseline PC referral rate. Process mapping, root cause analysis and Pareto chart were done, and key drivers were identified and interventions were planned. The common interventions were to increase oncologists' awareness, ensure holistic symptom assessment and establish a referral process. The proportion of patients with advanced cancer referred timely to PC was measured and recorded. Sustainability of the QI projects was assessed until September 2024.

There was an increase in the timely PC referral from 37% to 66% in Centre A, and from 30% to 60% in Centre B, from before August 2023 to April 2024.

QI projects are feasible and effective when supported by good stakeholder collaboration to achieve the target of early and timely PC referral within oncology settings.