Pharmacist-Led Telemedicine Follow-Up to Preserve Outpatient Palliative Care Access During a Regional Cancer Center Staffing Shortage: A Brief Quality Improvement Report.

BACKGROUND

Outpatient palliative care availability may decline during staffing disruptions. At our regional cancer center, on-site palliative care availability fell from three clinic days weekly to one during a family leave. We piloted independent follow-up visits by specialty-trained palliative care pharmacists for patients.

MEASURES: Patient and encounter volume, oncologist participation, referral-to-visit time, visit completion, recommendation type, and oncologist acceptance.

INTERVENTION: From November 2025 to February 2026, we adapted an existing pharmacist-led palliative telemedicine clinic to another site. Pharmacists performed symptom assessments and titration recommendations, which oncology teams could implement.

OUTCOMES: Mean monthly encounters increased 28% from 29 to 37. Four of six oncologists participated. Twenty-seven of 41 pharmacist visits were completed; median referral-to-visit time was 8.5 days. Opioid titration occurred in 52% of visits, and oncologists accepted 100% of recommendations.

CONCLUSIONS/LESSONS LEARNED: Pharmacist-led telemedicine follow-up was feasible, acceptable, and helped preserve palliative care availability during temporary staffing disruption.