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CAPC Palliative Care Discussion Forum
Data Collection and Measurement
Clinical indicatorsAuthor: itriana
Date: Aug 12, 2011 12:05 pm
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Great questions. Many examples of symptom assessment/documentation tools are available in the Measurement Tools section of the CAPC Website: http://www.capc.org/tools-for-palliative-care-programs/measurement/ . The Clinical Rounding Tool and the publications describing consensus recommendations for clinical, customer and operational metrics are very useful.
In terms of processes for documenting physical/ psychological symptoms … other forum users may wish to share their approaches or experiences. I can tell you what I have observed from working with lots of sites through our UCSF PCLC. Many programs use a customized version of the Clinical Rounding Tool, either as a paper document or in the form of templates/menus that have been incorporated into an EMR. The most successful approaches are those that incorporate measurement/documentation into the clinical workflow (real-time data collection done at the bedside vs abstracting data retrospectively, for example through manual chart review).
Methods for storing, aggregating and analyzing data vary depending on the resources at a given site. It is not uncommon for providers to input data on a paper rounding tool or into an EMR. In paper systems, there is a lot of variation in the type of database used (everything from an Excel spreadsheet to a relational database program like Microsoft Access or a Web-based database.) It is most efficient if data entry tasks are managed by administrative personnel, though not all sites have such resources. There is also a lot of variation in how data analysis chores are managed. At some sites, clinical leaders take responsibility for this task; at others, analysts, sometimes individuals affiliated with the hospital quality or performance improvement departments, take responsibility for this work.
Hope that helps.
Regards,
Kathleen Kerr
Senior Analyst
University of California San Francisco, Palliative Care Leadership Center
To create an internal report for data collection for example how should I target Palliative Care pts? By symptoms more than.. on a scale, or by specific code? How do I create a report of all palliative care pts daily? From the order to P.C consult? But what if the order is not enetered as P.C? which triggers or cirteria can I used to separeate P.C pts from the rest?
Thank you