Integrated Care Planning for Cancer Patients: A Scoping Review.

Sharon Gradin,Anum Irfan Khan,Jonathan Sussman,Vishal Kukreti,Marnie Mackinnon,Erin Arthurs

doi:10.5334/ijic.2543

Abstract

Introduction:There has been a growing emphasis on the use of integrated care plans to deliver cancer care. However little is known about how integrated care plans for cancer patients are developed including featured core activities, facilitators for uptake and indicators for assessing impact.Methods:Given limited consensus around what constitutes an integrated care plan for cancer patients, a scoping review was conducted to explore the components of integrated care plans and contextual factors that influence design and uptake.Results:Five types of integrated care plans based on the stage of cancer care: surgical, systemic, survivorship, palliative and comprehensive (involving a transition between stages) are described in current literature. Breast, esophageal and colorectal cancers were common disease sites. Multi-disciplinary teams, patient needs assessment and transitional planning emerged as key features. Provider buy-in and training alongside informational technology support served as important facilitators for plan uptake. Provider-level measurement was considerably less robust compared to patient and system-level indicators.Conclusions:Similarities in design features, components and facilitators across the various types of integrated care plans indicates opportunities to leverage shared features and enable a management lens that spans the trajectory of a patient’s journey rather than a phase-specific silo approach to care.

Highlights

There has been a growing emphasis on the use of integrated care plans to deliver cancer care
Given the diverse range of providers and settings involved in caring for cancer patients [4, 5], there has been a strong emphasis on the use of care plans [6, 7] to support care management in cancer patients [8,9,10,11]
Following the completion of this first stage, an initial definition was drafted and feedback was obtained through widespread consultation via a panel of key experts in cancer care, which included healthcare providers, administrators/management and researchers from across the core disciplines represented in the continuum of cancer care

Summary

Introduction

There has been a growing emphasis on the use of integrated care plans to deliver cancer care. Little is known about how integrated care plans for cancer patients are developed including featured core activities, facilitators for uptake and indicators for assessing impact. Given the high cost and complexity of their evolving needs from diagnosis to either survivorship or palliative care, cancer patients require care that is integrated across providers (medical, nursing and allied-health practitioners) and settings over time [1,2,3]. Given the diverse range of providers and settings involved in caring for cancer patients [4, 5], there has been a strong emphasis on the use of care plans [6, 7] to support care management in cancer patients [8,9,10,11]. For the purposes of this review, the term ‘care plan’ will be used to refer to these abovementioned terms

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion