If You Want to Go Far, Go Together: Lessons Learned from Quality Improvement Collaboratives in Palliative Care

Authors

  • Steven Pantilat Division of Palliative Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
  • Kara Bischoff Division of Palliative Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
  • Kristyn Fazzalaro Palliative Care and Cancer Support Services, Hoag Health, Newport Beach, California, USA
  • Maggie Root Kenniscentrum Kinderpalliatieve Zorg, Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Jori Bogetz Department of Pediatrics, Division of Bioethics and Palliative Care, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington, USA
  • Rachel Thienprayoon Department of Pediatrics, James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
  • Karen Bullock Boston College School of Social Work, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  • Diane Meier Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Center to Advance Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA
  • Phillip Rodgers Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
  • David Wang San Diego, California, USA
  • Cheryl Thaxton University of North Texas Health, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
  • Arif Kamal American Cancer Society, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • Andrea Postier Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Pain, Palliative and Integrative Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
  • Sabina Clapham Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
  • Melissa Aldridge Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Center to Advance Palliative Care, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA
  • Angela Marks Division of Hematology Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA
  • Ashley Bragg Palliative Care Center of Excellence, Stanford Health Care, Palo Alto, California, USA
  • Charlotta Lindvall Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
  • Jonathan Nicolla Durham, North Carolina, USA
  • David Currow Flinders University, Bedford Park, Australia
  • David O'Riordan Division of Palliative Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA

Keywords:

data collection, outcome measurement, quality improvement

Abstract

Poznámka redakce: Tento text je přetiskem původního článku publikovaného v časopise Journal of Palliative Medicine, 2026, doi: 10.1177/10966218261436569. Grafická úprava článku a formát citací byly upraveny do standardní podoby časopisu Paliativní medicína.

Doporučená citace tohoto dokumentu: Pantilat SZ, Bischoff KE, Fazzalaro K, et al. If You Want to Go Far, Go Together: Lessons Learned from Quality Improvement Collaboratives in Palliative Care. Journal of Palliative Medicine. 2026;0(0). doi:10.1177/10966218261436569

An ongoing commitment to quality improvement (QI) is essential in palliative care (PC), where patients are often frail, suffering is pervasive, and time may be short. Multicenter collaboration in QI allows PC teams to share and harness innovations and approaches from colleagues across the country and around the world. In order to learn at scale, PC teams must be able to directly compare their practices through standardized measurement and reporting of program structures, processes of care, and patient- and institution-level outcomes. Several PC projects around the world adopted this approach to standardized data collection and benchmarking to monitor quality, identify gaps in care, and promote best practices. We highlight lessons learned from these QI collaboratives. Key insights include that PC teams can collect standardized patient-level outcome data in the course of clinical care that can illuminate variations, gaps in care, and best practices. Further, data showed that there is a wide variation in PC practice and outcomes that cannot be explained by the resources available, even for core care parameters.

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Published

2026-07-07

How to Cite

1.
Pantilat S, Bischoff K, Fazzalaro K, et al. If You Want to Go Far, Go Together: Lessons Learned from Quality Improvement Collaboratives in Palliative Care. PAL.MED.CZ. 2026;7(2):1-11. Accessed July 8, 2026. https://www.palmed.cz/pm/article/view/278

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 2 (2026)

Section

Palliative care