Promoting timely goals of care conversations between gynecologic cancer patients at high-risk of death and their providers

Objective. We designed a multi-faceted intervention to increase the rate of outpatient goals of care (GOC) conversations in women with gynecologic cancers who are at high-risk of death. Methods and materials. A multidisciplinary team developed an educational program around GOC conversations at end-of-life and chose criteria to prospectively identify patients at high-risk of death who might benefit from timely GOC conversations: recurrent or metastatic endometrial, cervical or vulvar cancer or platinumresistant ovarian cancer. Gynecologic oncology provider consensus was built regarding the need to improve the quality and timing of GOC conversations. Eligible outpatients were prospectively identified and providers alerted pre-encounter; timely GOC documentation within 3 visits of high-risk identification was tracked. Our institution concurrently and subsequently tracked GOC documentation during the last 6 months of life among all established oncology patients. Results. Of 220 pilot period high-risk patients (96 pre- and 124 during pilot period 2017-2018), timely GOC discussion documentation increased from 30.2% to 88.7% (p < 0.001) and this increase was sustained over time. In the post-pilot period (2019-2020), among patients seen by oncologists during last 6 months of life, compared to other cancer types, gynecologic cancer patients had a higher rate of GOC documentation (81% versus 9%; p < 0.001), a lower rate of receiving chemotherapy during the last 14 days of life (2% vs 5%; p = 0.051), and no difference in end-of-life admissions (29% vs 31%; p = NS).