Palliative care clinicians in health systems can apply research to lobby administrators for additional resources.
In doing so, they may get a profile boost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Palliative care’s reputation grew during the pandemic, with more patients and health care organizations recognizing its benefits and value.
Stakeholders can leverage this in discussions with organization leaders, according to Dr. Tamara Vesel, chief of the Palliative Care Division at Tufts Medical Center and associate professor of medicine and pediatrics, Tufts University School of Medicine.
Vesel and other researchers from Tufts University set out in 2021 to explore the utilization, perceptions and understanding of palliative care among critical care clinicians, hospital leaders and spiritual care providers during the pandemic.
“The pandemic reinforced positive perception of palliative care and increased participants’ understanding of its scope and respondents indicated a need for more palliative care and advocated for their role in future pandemic,” Vesel said in a presentation at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s Annual Leadership Conference. “I wanted to find that, because when you go then to a CMO or CEO and say ‘I want another physician in palliative care,’ I can then tell them, this is what you told us. So where is the money?”
For the first phase of their study, they conducted interviews with 25 members of three groups within Tufts: critical care physicians, hospital leaders and spiritual care providers. A second group of interviews occurred among administrators and staff at four of the health system’s hospitals. The researchers later published their findings in the American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
They found that the role of palliative care teams increased during the pandemic, and that providers of those services were a bridge between other clinicians, patients and families. Their results also showed that the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced positive perceptions of palliative care and increased clinicians’ and administrators’ understanding of what those services are.
During the course of their research the study authors identified several barriers to expanding palliative care. For example, limited opportunities for reimbursement. Other issues included misconceptions about palliative care, a lack of effective communication and documentation in the health care system and staffing shortages.
When approaching organization leaders to advocate for palliative care, the importance of data cannot be overstated, according to study co-author Dr. Bernice Burkarth, chief medical officer of Tufts Medicine Care at Home and assistant professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.
“I can’t emphasize enough the importance of data,” Burkarth said. “So the qualitative research data that we got on perceptions, misconceptions, attitudes, helped frame where we needed to focus and look at how best to approach the different leadership levels to be able to get their support — not just emotional support, but show me the money — the financial support to be able to do this.”
