Abstract
BACKGROUND: A feasibility evaluation of a comprehensive quality indicator set for palliative care identified the need for a minimal selection of these indicators to monitor quality of palliative care services with short questionnaires for the patients, caregivers, and family carers.
OBJECTIVES: To develop a minimal indicator set for efficient quality assessment in palliative care.
DESIGN: A 2 round modified Research ANd Development corporation in collaboration with the University of California at Los Angeles (RAND/UCLA) expert consultation.
SETTING/PATIENTS: Thirteen experts in palliative care (professionals and patient representatives).
MEASUREMENTS: In a home assignment, experts were asked to score 80 developed indicators for "priority" to be included in the minimal set on a scale from 0 (lowest priority) to 9 (highest priority). The second round consisted of a plenary meeting in which the minimal set was finalized.
RESULTS: Thirty-nine of the 80 indicators were discarded, while 19 were definitely selected after the home assignment, and 22 were proposed for discussion during the meeting; 12 of these survived the selection round. The final minimal indicator set for palliative care consists of 5 indicators about the physical aspects of care; 6 about the psychosocial aspects of care; 13 about information, communication, and care planning; 5 about type of care; and 2 about continuity of care.
CONCLUSION: A minimal set of 31 indicators reflecting all the important issues in palliative care was created for palliative care services to assess the quality of their care in a quick and efficient manner. Additional topic-specific optional modules are available for more thorough assessment of specific aspects of care.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 532-546 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2017 |
Keywords
- minimal data set
- palliative care
- quality assessment
- quality improvement
- quality indicators
- Quality of Health Care/standards
- Palliative Care/standards
- Humans
- Male
- Quality Indicators, Health Care/standards
- Delphi Technique
- Female
- Surveys and Questionnaires
- Los Angeles