Provider Perspectives and Access to Palliative Care: An American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) Survey.

Background: To explore provider perspectives about palliative care (PC) in head and neck cancer (HNC) care.

Methods: A 25-question electronic survey was disseminated to the membership of the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) from April 10, 2023, through June 13, 2023.

Results: Respondents were most likely to refer to PC at symptomatic disease progression (52%) or terminal diagnosis (29%) rather than at initial diagnosis (17%). Participants less likely to refer to PC were less likely to refer to symptomatic progression (8% vs. 39%, p = 0.0006) or address advance directives (62% vs. 87%, p = 0.0406). Symptom burden questionnaires were used by only 29% of respondents. Discordance was identified between self-reported and actual access to local inpatient and outpatient PC services.

Conclusions: Barriers to PC identified include a lack of established optimal timing of PC referral, a perceived lack of local access to PC, and a lack of uniform standardized assessment of symptom burden.