title: Models, standards, guidelines.
abstract: This article reviews the current illness experience for elders, highlights key issues that cause suffering and affect the quality of life of elders in our society, and reviews the definition and the process for providing palliative care. A consensus-building process is described, which any hospice or palliative care organization can use to adapt existing consensus and evidence-based models, standards of practice, and preferred practice guidelines and engage all staff and stakeholders in the development of an organizational model to guide day-to-day practices and improve the quality of all its activities.
authors.affiliation: San Diego Hospice & Palliative Care, 4311 Third Avenue, San Diego, CA 92103-1407, USA. fferris@sdhospice.org
authors.forename: Frank D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Ferris
authors.forename: S Lawrence
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Librach
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D017146:Models, Organizational; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011788:Quality of Life