Needs assessment and hospice planning in a rural setting.
A needs assessment is a research and planning activity designed to determine a community's service needs and utilization patterns. One of the most practical ways to plan services is to gather information accurately about a defined population and use that information to revise existing programs or develop new ones. Unfortunately, needs assessment findings often go unused. This article describes how a needs assessment was designed to assess the need for hospice services in a rural Pennsylvania county and how the results of this assessment were useful in determining priorities for program planning and service development. The implications of a model needs assessment such as the one proposed are discussed.
D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006302:Health Services Research; D006738:Hospices; D006801:Humans; D008722:Methods; D010414:Pennsylvania; D012423:Rural Health