Patient Engagement in the Management of Pituitary Tumor: University of Ottawa Experience

Background: Pituitary adenomas are common and often require complex multidisciplinary care with multiple specialists. This may result in a health care system that is challenging for patients to navigate. Audits of care at our institution revealed opportunities for improvement to better align care with patients' needs.

Methods: A quality improvement initiative that incorporated a patient advisory committee of patients who had received treatment for pituitary adenoma at our center and their family members was used to help identify opportunities for improvement. The patient-identified gaps in care included the need to coordinate and minimize appointments and the desire for better communication and education. Based on this information, changes were implemented to the pituitary program, including increasing access to the multidisciplinary clinic and developing a standardized and centralized triage process.

Results: A pre and postintervention analysis consisting of retrospective chart reviews revealed that these changes had an impact on wait times for first assessment, and a significant shift in location of this first visit, with a larger proportion of patients being seen in the multidisciplinary clinic after intervention.

Conclusion: We demonstrate that patient involvement, beyond individual patient–physician interactions, can lead to meaningful and observable changes and can improve the quality of care for pituitary adenoma.

No conflict of interest has been declared by the author(s).

Publication History

Article published online:
12 February 2021