Table 2.

Usual Care Versus Palliative Care Intervention Implementation

	Usual PC	PCI
Patient assessment	Unstructured; ESAS and PPS used at one site	QOL: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual; distress
Family caregiver assessment	None	QOL: physical, psychological, social, and spiritual; distress, burden, and preparedness
Interdisciplinary care plan	Unstructured	Standardized based on needs identified from assessment
Patient education	Unstructured as needed	Individually tailored (two sessions) addressing QOL domains
Caregiver education	Unstructured as needed	Individually tailored (one session) addressing QOL domains
Care coordination/management	As needed	As needed
Phone follow-up	As needed	Patients (two calls); FCG (one call)
Duration	Until transition to home-based PC or hospice	Three months
Palliative care team structure
Site 1	Physician, Nurse, Social Worker, Chaplain
Site 2	Physician, Nurse, Social Worker, Chaplain
Site 3	Physician, Nurse, Social Worker

ESAS, Edmonton symptom assessment scale; PPS, palliative performance scale.