Integrating PROMs into supportive and palliative care to facilitate high-quality patient-centred care.

Abstract

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) are validated surveys 'capturing' patients' most pressing concerns. Although PROMs have been widely used in community and inpatient settings as part of a national dataset, they have had only limited utility in tertiary hospital palliative care outpatient services. In oncology settings, they have been shown to improve quality of life, symptom control, patient satisfaction, communication between clinicians and consumers and potentially overall survival, as a result of identifying patients’ risks and unmet needs. PROMs have the potential to identify issues earlier and also reduce distressing and avoidable emergency department presentations and admissions.