Palliative care outcomes collaboration: improving the quality of palliative care using routine, standard patient assessments

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) allows palliative care nurses to more effectively evaluate the quality of care being provided to patients. The PCOC was established in 2005 under the National Palliative Care Program and is supported by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. The collaboration includes the University of Wollongong, the University of Western Australia Flinders University and Queensland University of Technology, with associated quality improvement facilitators to assist services with PCOC

PCOC National Report on Outcomes in Palliative Care in Australia July to December 2011

The Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) was established in mid-2005 and is funded under the National Palliative Care Program supported by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. The goal of the PCOC is to use standardised, validated, clinical assessment tools to benchmark and measure outcomes in palliative care; and assist palliative care services to improve the quality of care. Further information on the tools can be found at www.pcoc.org.au. Each service involved in PCOC submits data every six months. The data are then collated and fed back to services to inform service improvement. Participation in PCOC is voluntary. There are three levels of data items - patient, episode and phase. The broad detail is found at the patient level, where the data items look at patient demographics. At the episode level, the items focus on characterising each setting of palliative care. They also describe the reasons behind why and how palliative care episodes start/end, the level of support patients receive both before and after an episode and (where applicable) the setting in which the patient died. The clinical focus of the data is at the phase level. The items at this level describe the patient\u27s stage of illness, functional impairment as well as their levels of pain and symptom distress. The items at the phase level are used to quantify patient outcomes, and are the focus of the PCOC benchmarks. The current PCOC data set (Version 2) was introduced in July 2007 following consultation with palliative care services and approval by PCOC\u27s Scientific and Clinical Advisory Committee. The data set includes five clinical assessment tools: Phases of Care, Palliative Care Problem Severity Score (PCPSS), Symptom Assessment Scale (SAS), Australia-modified Karnofsky Performance Status Scale (AKPS) and Resource Utilisation Groups - Activities of Daily Living (RUG-ADL). The items included in the PCOC data set serve the dual purpose of: - defining a common clinical language to allow communication between palliative care providers - facilitating the routine collection of national palliative care data for the purpose of reporting and benchmarking to drive quality improvement. Revised phase definitions were implemented in January 2012 but the data in this report does not reflect the revised definitions

Patient Outcomes in Palliative Care, Report 13 (January - June 2012) - Western Australia

PCOC aims to assist services to improve the quality of the palliative care they provide through the analysis and benchmarking of patient outcomes. In this, the thirteenth PCOC report, data submitted for the January - June 2012 period are summarised and patient outcomes benchmarked to enable participating services to assess their performance and identify areas in which they may improve. This report is broken into four sections: Section 1 provides a summary of the data included in this report. Section 2 summarises each of the four outcome measures and presents national benchmarking results for a selection of these measures. Section 3 presents a more detailed analysis of the outcome measures and benchmarks. Section 4 provides descriptive analysis at each of the patient, episode and phase data levels. In each of the four sections, data and analysis for services in WA is presented alongside the national figures for comparative purposes. The national figures reflect all palliative care services who submitted data for the January - June 2012 period. A full list of these services can be found at www.pcoc.org.au The four outcome measures included in this report were first introduced in the reporting period January to June 2009 (Report 7). There is strong sectoral support for national benchmarks and a consensus that such benchmarks can drive service innovation regardless of model of care. Benchmarking provides opportunities to understand the services that are provided, the outcomes patients experience and also to generate research opportunities focused on how to demonstrate variations in practice and outcomes

Supporting service change in palliative care: a framework approach

Copyright 2014 Mark Allen Healthcare. editorially accepted manuscript version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publisher.Background Palliative care services are increasingly identifying areas for improvement, then trying to create appropriate changes in response. Nurses in particular are often expected to take leading roles in Quality Improvement (QI) but are not necessarily trained or supported in these processes. Methods. A framework approach to change was developed to guide services through a change cycle, and delivered via workshops by representatives of three national projects in Australia. Participants were predominantly nurses (80%) with the majority over the age of 50 (62.4%). The workshops and the framework were positively evaluated with participants feeling confident in a number of QI related activities following workshop training. Discussion. Recognising and addressing problems in clinical practice and service delivery is an important way for nurses to ensure quality care for patients, however, they need support in developing the skills and knowledge that are essential to successful QI activities

Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration - establishing measures of palliative care patient outcomes

PCOC is: - A national initiative - Funded by the Department of Health and Ageing to introduce routine assessment of palliative care outcomes across Australia

The palliative care phase assessment in practice

PCOC is a national approach towards the routine assessment in palliative care practice using standardised assessment tools

National report on patient outcomes in palliative care in Australia: July - December 2012: report 14

PCOC aims to assist services to improve the quality of the palliative care they provide through the analysis and benchmarking of patient outcomes. In this, the fourteenth PCOC report, data submitted for the July - December 2012 period are summarised and patient outcomes benchmarked to enable participating services to assess their performance and identify areas in which they may improve

The use of common assessment tools: supporting connections

Implementation of common assessment tools across care settings facilitates a shared language that supports better communication between team members and between services. The use of common assessment tools supports the development of referral triggers and clinical decision tools that improve clinical outcomes and patient and family experience - ensuring for all people the right care, at the right time, in the right place. The importance of \u27impeccable\u27 clinical assessment has been understood from the very beginning of the modern hospice movement, along with the need for \u27exquisite\u27 attention to detail. While these definitions may be disputed in the palliative care movement of the 21st century the underlying principle that quality, patient -centred, holistic care begins with good assessment cannot be disputed. The NSAP Quality Report (NSAP 2011) revealed that clinical assessment was identified by two-thirds of palliative care services as a priority for improvement. Clinical assessment data is routinely collected by the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) to report service performance against national benchmarks in clinical care, and is used to drive improvement effort. This presentation will explore the links between clinical assessment and improved quality of care for people approaching and reaching the end of life - a shared commitment and collaboration between PCOC and Calvary Health, Aged and Community Care services. The use of the validated assessment tools utilised by PCOC to support quality improvement initiatives for the care of people approaching and reaching the end of life within Calvary services will be described