Impact of Interprofessional Collaborative Practice in Palliative Care on Outcomes for Advanced Cancer Inpatients in Resource Limited Setting

Background: Palliative care for advanced cancer patients improves suffering symptoms, quality of life (QoLs). However, routine implementation of palliative care by specialty palliative care consultation is still unmet need among advanced cancer inpatients. Our study aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of team-based approach on QoLs and readmission rate when compare to routine practice by among medical oncologists. Methods This study was prospective, Quasi-Experimental design. Advanced cancer inpatients were non-randomly assigned to receive palliative care service by team-based approach or medical oncologists only. The primary endpoint was QoL. The secondary endpoint was readmission rate at 7, and 30 days of hospital discharge. Results One hundred twenty-two inpatients were enrolled. Inpatients who were assessed by team-based approach had significantly improved in change scores of subjective well-being (SWB) when compare to another group (∆ SWB: -1 [-19–11] vs 0 [-9–15], p-value  = 0.043). Furthermore, inpatients who were assessed by team-based approach had significantly decreased in term of readmission rate at 7 days of hospital discharge (4.92% in team-based approach group vs. 19.67% in medical oncologist group, p-value  = 0.013). Conclusions Interdisciplinary collaboration is key success for establishing goal of care, which are supporting the best possible QoL and relieving suffering symptoms for those advanced cancer inpatients. Furthermore, readmission rate at 7 days of hospital discharge was significantly reduced by team-based approach. Therefore, comprehensive palliative care assessment by interprofessional collaborative practice is required.