Guidelines and Recommendations for Palliative Care

During this Insights interview with Genevieve Kumapley, PharmD, BCOP, on the Use of Oral Oncolytics in Palliative Care, part of the Oncology Stakeholders Summit, Spring 2015 series, Dr Kumapley discusses current guidelines for the delivery of palliative care and describes gaps in care.

Recent guidelines by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Society of Clinical Oncology recommend a multidisciplinary management approach when caring for patients, says Dr Kumapley, an oncology clinical pharmacy specialist for Saint Peter’s Healthcare System. Employing a multidisciplinary management approach is essential to providing the best quality of care, she adds, as such an approach enables providers to consider spiritual, psychosocial, and cultural issues that may be important to patients.

However, Dr Kumapley suggests that certain gaps in care need to be addressed; for instance, most palliative care is provided in the hospital, even though doing so earlier in a patient’s diagnosis and in the outpatient setting is equally important. Outpatient facilities are often where patients first receive their cancer diagnosis, says Dr Kumapley. Providing palliative care in the outpatient setting also increases reimbursement opportunities for cancer care teams, she suggests.