Enhancing palliative care occupancy and efficiency: a quality improvement project that uses a healthcare pathway for service integration and policy development

Abstract

This article described our experience in implementing a quality improvement project to overcome the bed overcapacity problem at a comprehensive cancer centre in a tertiary care centre. We formed a multidisciplinary team including a representative from patient and family support (six members), hospice care and home care services (four members), multidisciplinary team development (four members) and the national lead. The primary responsibility of the formulated team was implementing measures to optimise and manage patient flow. We used the plan-do-study-act cycle to engage all stakeholders from all service layers, test some interventions in simplified pilots and develop a more detailed plan and business case for further implementation and roll-out, which was used as a problem-solving approach in our project for refining a process or implementing changes. As a result, we observed a significant reduction in bed capacity from 35% in 2017 to 13.8% in 2018. While the original length of stay (LOS) was 28 days, the average LOS was 19 days in 2017 (including the time before and after the intervention), 10.8 days in 2018 (after the intervention was implemented), 10.1 days in 2019 and 16 days in 2020. The increase in 2020 parameters was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, since many patients did not enrol in our new care model. Using a systematic care delivery approach by a multidisciplinary team improves significantly reduced bed occupancy and reduces LOS for palliative care patients.