Table 3.
—Strategies to Improve Palliative Care
| Potential/Existing Strategy | Available but Have Not Used | Not Helpful | Somewhat Helpful | Very Helpful |
| End-of-life care quality monitoring (n = 123) | 8.1 | 8.1 | 48.5 | 35.4 |
| Bereavement program or service (n = 124) | 9.0 | 2.0 | 47.0 | 42.0 |
| Regular meetings of transplant physician and nurse with patients and their families (n = 123) | 0.0 | 0.9 | 21.2 | 77.9a |
| Training of lung transplant physicians in end-of-life communication skills (n = 123) | 2.0 | 2.0 | 43.9 | 52.0a |
| Role modeling and supervision of transplant physician trainees by physicians experienced in end-of-life care (n = 123) | 1.0 | 8.2 | 39.8 | 51.0a |
| Formal mechanism for emotional support of staff caring for dying patients (n = 123) | 7.2 | 6.2 | 48.5 | 38.1 |
| Access to palliative care consultants (n = 123) | 5.4 | 2.7 | 29.7 | 62.2a |
| Training of transplant physicians in symptom management (n = 99) | 1.9 | 2.9 | 41.0 | 54.3a |
| Formal system for scaled assessment and charting of patients’ symptoms (n = 100) | 4.0 | 13.0 | 61.0 | 22.0 |
| Method to help resolve differences about appropriate care goals (n = 113) | 3.0 | 7.0 | 53.0 | 37.0 |
| Resources to accommodate diversity among families and patients at end of life (n = 98) | 2.1 | 6.2 | 57.7 | 34.0 |
| Access to clinical ethics consultants (n = 98) | 14.0 | 31.8 | 40.2 | 14.0 |
| Regular pastoral care visits to transplant clinic (n = 97) | 6.9 | 16.7 | 40.2 | 36.3 |
| Routine advance care planning assistance for all patients listed for transplant (n = 97) | 1.0 | 5.9 | 39.6 | 53.5a |
| Regular communication between transplant program and referring physician (n = 111) | 1.9 | 6.5 | 39.8 | 51.9a |
| Strategies to promote communication between patients and geographically remote support people (n = 105) | 2.1 | 4.2 | 55.2 | 38.5 |
Data are presented as %.
a
Strategies that were considered very helpful by > 50% of respondents.