Improving care at the end of life is a prime opportunity for cancer programs to drive quality, decrease costs, and enhance the patient and family experience.

Aggressive end-of-life care that provides no clinical benefit, including chemotherapy and hospitalizations in the last two weeks of life, contributes significantly to overall costs of care. In addition, it often negatively impacts patients' and their families' quality of life and care experience.

While improving end-of-life care has been a longstanding priority in the oncology community, it remains challenging due to cultural and clinical barriers. To help cancer program leaders overcome these challenges, this report outlines four tactics:

1. Empower patients to start the conversation
2. Give the care team the right tools
3. Integrate palliative care early
4. Build better hospice relationships

Download the Research Report

Related resources

• Cancer Support Service Volumes, Staffing, and Operations Benchmark Generator
  Use this tool to compare your palliative care staffing levels and volume throughput to your cancer center peers.
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• List of Available End-of-Life Care Training Programs
  Use this list to find training programs for your care team that focus on how to have meaningful end-of-life discussions with patients.
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• Overview of Common Types of Advance Care Planning Documents
  This guide gives an overview of the requirements and differences between common end-of-life care planning documents.
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• URMC's Patient Question Prompt List for End-of-Life Care
  See the question list URMC used to coach patients to initiate conversations about end-of-life care with their oncologists.