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PONE-D-21-32051Development of a national quality framework for palliative care in a mixed generalist and specialist care model: A whole-sector approach and a Delphi procedurePLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Boddaert,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. I am pleased to report that we were able to find a second reviewer faster than expected, so now have the requisite number of reviews available. The reviewers have made some useful suggestions for improving your paper, and we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised.

Would a deadline of Jan 30 2022 11:59PM be manageable with your other commitments? As I mentioned in my earlier email, feel free to request more time if needed - just contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript in due course.

Kind regards,

Tim Luckett

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Thank you for the opportunity to review this interesting paper. It is exceptionally well written and provides a clear and coherent account of the complex process of developing a national quality framework for palliative care in the Netherlands. There is important and potentially transferable information on how to develop such a framework taking an inclusive approach. It is helpful to see that their vision included seeing the framework as including civil society rather than regarding palliative care merely as a medical discipline.

There are a few minor points that would benefit from attention:

Page 6 Line 147-148 and Pages 9-10 The authors refer to a search of the palliative care literature. It is not clear if this literature review is already published?

Page 11-12 There is little information provided about the Delphi procedure. It is not clear how many 'rounds' were conducted.

Page 13 Table 1 and Line 332 The term 'personal balance' is referred to in the table and in the text. I wonder if this term needs to be defined?

Page 15 Lines 362-363 The authors argue that a strength of their work was building a project team of 'dedicated senior physicians in palliative medicine and medical oncology was critical to facilitate the entire process'. While I can understand that gaining the support of senior clinical leaders is necessary, their statement appears to exclude senior nurses, social workers and allied health professionals. Normally palliative care is delivered by a multidisciplinary team. Perhaps the authors can clarify if health professionals beyond medicine were excluded.

Page 15 Lines 373-374 I realise there is a word limit, but I think the authors undersell the potential transferability of their experience in developing this quality framework.

Reviewer #2: please see attachment -

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: reviewer comments 15.12.21.docx

Development of a national quality framework for palliative care in a mixed generalist and specialist care model: A whole-sector approach and a modified Delphi technique

PONE-D-21-32051R1

Dear Dr. Boddaert,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Tim Luckett

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The authors have adequately addressed all my previous comments. This is a very worthwhile and well presented paper

Reviewer #2: Dear Authors, Thank you for your amendments. I believe the paper has been strengthened and is well presented. I wish you well with the publication of this manuscript.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No