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Next Reply: Re:Bereavement/customer satisfaction
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Post Bereavement/customer satisfaction
Author: tpalmer
Date: Mar 20, 2009 2:29 pm
Hi, I am the clinical coordinator of a 1 yr old palliative care service. We have not yet established a bereavement program or a pt/family satisfaction measuring tool. We are considering a brief phone call from volunteers asking specific questions to assess pt/family satisfaction with the palliative care program. We are also thinking about providing some bereavement information when appropriate. Has anyone done anything similar or have any suggestions for measuring customer satisfaction?
Replies: order by [Date] [Author] [Subject]
- Re:Bereavement/customer satisfaction (by dianeemeier on 04/01/2009)
Hi- we tried working with volunteers for bereavement calls but found that the families needed to talk- many were upset and traumatized and it was not appropriate to put a volunteer in that position. We had to stop that initiative. Now we send each family a card signed by everyone on the team involved in their loved ones care; invite all to a memorial service 2ce per year; and provide our contact information (with the mailed card) for folks who would like a bereavement group or counselling referral. An alternative or addition is to call a random sample of your discharges- say 10%- using a validated instrument such as the FamCare, or Joan Teno's satisfaction survey (available on the Brown website). capc website also has a number of satisfaction instruments under tools/measurement http://www.capc.org/tools-for-palliative-care-programs/measurement/

Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP
Director, Center to Advance Palliative Care
Director, Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute
Professor, Geriatrics and Internal Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, NY
Re:Re:Bereavement/customer satisfaction (by SharolHerr on 04/01/2009)
Developing a relationship with the community hospice can also be a wonderful link for bereavement support. Our acute palliative care service and hospitals can tap into the bereavment counseling and care as needed but especially for the high risk bereaved. Deaths in our hospitals are attended by chaplains for decedent care and all families are given a grief booklet that includes bereavment resources. This is a tool that families can look at once things are settled and see what support is available. It is not uncommon for post hospital disatisfaction to be related to complicated grief. When processing the complaint we are able to integrate the bereavement and grief pieces into the care of the family. Sharol Herr, RN, MSEd, CHPN; Nurse Clinician/Education Coordinator; Mount Carmel Health Palliative Care Leadership Center; Columbus, Ohio.
Re:Bereavement/customer satisfaction (by Tim_Ford on 04/01/2009)
We had a similar experience with volunteer calls. The training required to get them to the level to handle many of the calls was considerable and then the turn-over was larger than normal as many did not find it a satisfying use of their skills. Every death is attended by a chaplain here as well, ditto on the resource booklet. We also have a very well-organized local bereavement coalition that coordinates all the community resources. Our palliative volunteers handle printing and mailing sympathy (1-wk), 3mo., 6 mo., 9mo. and 12mo. cards, invitations to the yearly memorial (~120 attend), satisfaction surveys, and occasional research items. We call certain families that we consider higher risk for complicated bereavement (dependent relationship, traumatic, young pt. etc...) and are considering a more formal screening tool. We are also looking at better hospice hand-offs.

Hope this helps you.
Tim Ford, Palliative Chaplain
VCU Massey Cancer Center
Re:Bereavement/customer satisfaction (by dianeemeier on 04/06/2009)
Thanks for your post Tim- I wonder if you'd be willing to put copies of all of these bereavement tools and ideas into a pdf or or word document so we can share your resources with everyone?

Many thanks.
diane

Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP
Director, Center to Advance Palliative Care
Director, Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute
Professor, Geriatrics and Internal Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, NY

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