Community-Partnered Collaboration to Build an Integrated Palliative Care Clinic

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We partnered with patients, families, and palliative care clinicians to develop an integrated urology-palliative care clinic for patients with metastatic cancer. We assessed clinician satisfaction with a multidisciplinary palliative care clinic model. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 clinicians who practice in our integrated clinic. We analyzed transcripts using a multistage, cutting-and-sorting technique in an inductive approach based on grounded theory analysis. Finally, we administered a validated physician job satisfaction survey. RESULTS: Clinicians found that referring a patient to palliative care in the urology clinic was feasible and appropriate. Patients were receptive to supportive care, and clinicians perceived that quality of care improved following the intervention. CONCLUSION: An integrated, patient-centered model for individuals with advanced urologic malignancies is feasible and well received by practitioners.