A diverse range of health care providers have forged a pathway to palliative care services with an aim to improve quality outcomes among a growing seriously ill population.

Palliative care delivery trends are increasingly taking root in inpatient and community-based settings across the continuum, Gina Andres, senior director of hospice and palliative care at Kaiser Permanente, said at the Hospice News Palliative Care Conference in Tampa, Florida.

A main driver is the ability to better meet a broader range of needs among seriously ill patients and families, Andres said.

“There’s a lot of trends [and] we see it from inpatient palliative care, outpatient palliative care, home- based types of palliative care and community-based and clinic-based as well,” Andres told Palliative Care News. “We’re now seeing a little bit more reach into the skilled nursing facilities that provide palliative care as well. We’ve seen far too many failures and not being able to address people’s palliative care needs. It’s not a one-size-fits-all type of service, but it does meet the needs of patients wherever they’re at in that continuum.”

Providers of all walks are increasingly recognizing the value proposition of palliative care services, particularly when it comes to keeping patients out of higher cost care settings, Andres said. Having a palliative team available in an emergency care or hospital setting can help connect patients to home-based serious illness care when the need arises, Andres stated.

Having palliative teams in a variety of care settings can help connect caregivers with much needed resources and supportive care to avoid patients “falling through the cracks,” of a fragmented health system and reduce unnecessary hospitalizations, according to Andres.

A lack of support for caregivers is among the “number one” issues among seriously ill patients and families, when transitioning care into the home, she stated.

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Palliative care services have become an attractive area in particular for emergency and urgent care providers in hospital and health system settings, according to Dr. Roderick Bennett, medical director of SOS Mobile Medical Care. The Florida-based home-based care provider offers primary, urgent and emergency care, including medication management, diagnostic testing, wound care and intravenous therapies, among other services. 

“I’m an emergency physician by trade that started in the hospice and palliative care field about a year and a half ago, and it’s [become] very appealing to multiple specialties,” Bennett said at the conference. “As we are trying to do something that is right for the patient and do something that isn’t just out there making money. Palliative care is very attractive. There’s something satisfying and fulfilling, and I think we’re going to see more and more providers looking at palliative care as an option.”

Taking a collaborative approach to care is an important part of expanding palliative care’s reach across the care continuum, said Choice Health at Home CEO David Jackson.

The collaborative aspect begins providing more palliative education and awareness to clinicians in hospital, skilled nursing and primary settings, among other care settings, Jackson stated. It also involves the ability to demonstrate improved quality outcomes, he mentioned.

“Once they understand what we’re doing in talking to other providers, like hospitals, hospices and nursing facilities, and what we bring with a more comprehensive approach to the patient, then they open their doors,” Jackson said at the conference. “We’re not trying to take over, but improve their care. As we improve [that] education, I think it’s just going to continue to infiltrate out [and] other providers are going to be interested as they learn, because it’s consumer-driven [and] based on patient satisfaction.”