Data Type

Operational and descriptive data - application of The National Consensus Project's (NCP) Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care on inpatient clinical practice.

Goal

To analyze time spent on different aspects (domains) of Palliative Care and to determine if the St. Luke's Palliative Care program addressed the domains identified by the National Consensus Project.

Measures

Tracking time spent and day of Palliative Care consult.

1. For one month, each team member recorded their palliative activities in time increments within one of the eight identified domains. In addition, the team recorded where in the palliative care consultation trajectory a particular domain occurred and which hospital system issues were impacted by the consultation services. The results demonstrated that indeed the team was addressing the different aspects of care outlined by the National Consensus Project and identified that initial contact with patient and families took the most time. The data retrieved was used to highlight the different aspects of care provided by the team and the time required to accomplish quality palliative care.
2. Graphs of Results:
   
   
   

Summary

The results documented intense time requirements in the initial contact period with patients and families and a substantial percentage of time on issues affecting the hospital system. This project helped demonstrate that the Palliative

Care Consultation team indeed provided quality palliative care set forth by national standards thus helping to legitimize the program to hospital administration and leadership.

• The team provided most care in Domain 1: Structure and Process of Care, Domain 3: Psychological and Psychiatric Aspects of Care, and Domain 5: Spiritual, Religious and Existential Aspects of Care. The collection of data helped the team to operationalize their daily practice.
• Activities not directly related to clinical practice provided by the team included staff education, improving staff morale and enhancing communication between members of the health care team. These results indicate that the team spent time improving quality in several other areas in addition to direct clinical practice.