Interdisciplinary Pain Board to Manage Patients with Palliative Care Needs and Substance Use Disorder: A Pilot Study

Outcomes 1. Participants will self-report the ability to develop and evaluate the benefits of an interdisciplinary team-based approach to improve the care of patients with palliative care needs and concurrent substance use disorder. 2. Participants will self-report the ability analyze the shared interdisciplinary challenges of caring for patients with palliative care needs and concurrent substance use disorder and identify tools to improve interdisciplinary collaboration. Key Message This poster describes the feasibility and acceptability of a Complex Pain Board to provide concrete care recommendations for palliative care patients with pain and concurrent substance use disorder. The intervention was feasible and acceptable within our ambulatory palliative care setting and allowed for interdisciplinary collaboration on challenging cases. Context Patients with palliative care needs and concurrent substance use disorder present a unique set of challenges for palliative care clinicians (1). A structured forum for interdisciplinary collaboration and peer support may help improve the management of this complex population (2-3). Objectives Describe the feasibility and acceptability of a palliative care Complex Pain Board (CPB), an interdisciplinary team meeting to provide concrete care recommendations for patients with palliative care needs and concurrent substance use disorder and/or psychosocial complexity. Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of cases presented at CPB between May 2021 and June 2022 and a cross sectional analysis of CBP participant surveys. Results The majority of the scheduled meetings had ≥1 cases for presentation (86%). Primary reasons for referral to CPB were substance use disorder (n=22, 78.6%) and provider/team distress (n=13, 46.4%). The most frequent recommendations made at Complex Pain Board were interdisciplinary collaboration/ team collaboration (n=18, 64.3%), maintaining healthy boundaries (n=15, 53.6%), and substance use disorder management (n=13, 46.4%). Among 40 CBP participant survey respondents, most attendees (n=38, 95%) were likely or highly likely to continue to attend. Conclusion CPB provided an opportunity for an interdisciplinary team to collaborate on the management of challenging cases. The intervention was both feasible and acceptable within our ambulatory palliative care practice. Keywords Models of Palliative Care DeliveryInterdisciplinary Teamwork / Professionalism