Despite the known negative psychological and physical impacts financial toxicity has on people affected by cancer, a gap remains in the establishment of standard processes to ensure that informed financial consent (IFC) is obtained within cancer care settings. Through implementation process mapping, this study aimed to understand existing pathways of establishing IFC to develop recommendations as to how IFC can be implemented in various cancer clinical care settings.
Australian medical professionals were invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Participants were approached if they had previously demonstrated or discussed having some level of IFC process already in place, labelling them ‘early adopters.’ We drafted a generic process map to guide interviews and used The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to inform the development of the interview questions.
10 participants agreed to be interviewed. IFC processes varied across professional speciality (i.e., general practice, surgery, radiation oncology and medical oncology) and healthcare settings (i.e., public and private). Individualised process maps were established and confirmed by the different participants. Key components of IFC processes were characterised and led to the development of an aggregated process map which provides recommendations on essential practices to ensure the Standard for IFC is met. Barriers and enablers to the delivery of IFC were identified and the study produced examples of practical actions and recommendations for healthcare professionals and services to consider when adopting IFC processes.