title: The Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) as an audit tool.
abstract: To ensure quality of care, palliative care programs need to document the effectiveness of their relief of physical and psychological distress. The Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) is a validated, reliable instrument developed to measure 9 different symptoms in palliative care patients. To see if symptom management could be compared across institutions, we first reviewed the charts of 188 successive admissions to the palliative care unit at St. Boniface General Hospital, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Our study showed that the ESAS is a useful audit tool for assessing patterns of palliative symptom control that allows for institutional comparisons. Procedures that ensure completeness of data collection remain to be developed.
authors.affiliation: Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Manitoba, Canada.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Dudgeon
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harlos
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Clinch
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008350:Manitoba; D008485:Medical Audit / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009325:Nausea / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index