Association of a pediatric palliative oncology clinic on palliative care access, timing and location of care for children with cancer

Background Most pediatric palliative care (PPC) services are inpatient consultation services and do not reach patients and families in the outpatient and home settings, where a vast majority of oncology care occurs. We explored whether an embedded pediatric palliative oncology (PPO) clinic is associ...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Supportive care in cancer 2021-04, Vol.29 (4), p.1849-1857
Main Authors: Brock, Katharine E., Allen, Kristen E., Falk, Erin, Velozzi-Averhoff, Cristina, DeGroote, Nicholas P., Klick, Jeffrey, Wasilewski-Masker, Karen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brain tumors
Cancer
Child
Clinics
Female
Health care delivery
Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing - organization & administration
Humans
Male
Medical colleges
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Neoplasms - therapy
Nursing
Nursing Research
Oncology
Original
Original Article
Pain Medicine
Palliative care
Palliative Care - methods
Palliative treatment
Pediatrics
Rehabilitation Medicine
Tumors
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background Most pediatric palliative care (PPC) services are inpatient consultation services and do not reach patients and families in the outpatient and home settings, where a vast majority of oncology care occurs. We explored whether an embedded pediatric palliative oncology (PPO) clinic is associated with receipt and timing of PPC and hospital days in the last 90 days of life. Methods Oncology patients (ages 0–25) with a high-risk event (death, relapse/progression, and/or phase I/II clinical trial enrollment) between 07/01/2015 and 06/30/2018 were included. PPO clinic started July 2017. Two cohorts were defined: pre-PPO (high-risk event(s) occurring 07/01/2015–06/30/2017) and post-PPO (high-risk event(s) occurring 07/01/2017–06/30/2018). Descriptive statistics were performed; demographic, disease course, and outcomes variables across cohorts were compared. Results A total of 426 patients were included (pre-PPO n  = 235; post-PPO n  = 191). Forty-seven patients with events in both pre- and post-PPO cohorts were included in the post-PPO cohort. Mean age at diagnosis was 8 years. Diagnoses were evenly distributed among solid tumors, brain tumors, and leukemia/lymphoma. Post-PPO cohort patients received PPC more often (45.6% vs. 21.3%, p  
ISSN:0941-4355
1433-7339
DOI:10.1007/s00520-020-05671-y