Involving families in end of life care.
The authors outline the benefits of an initiative piloted at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust. Family members of people at the end of their lives are asked to fill in diaries to provide feedback about care, and the information is used to address issues raised. The data and comments are collated, audited and fed back to clinical staff and managers across the trust to benchmark patient-reported outcome measures and quality markers for achieving a 'good death'. The term 'family' refers here to family, friends, carers and significant others who are present at the bedside of patients who are dying in hospital and who are on the Liverpool Care Pathway.
University Hospital of North Tees. sue.smith1@nth.nhs.uk
Sue
S
Smith
Edwin
E
Pugh
Mel
M
McEvoy
D000368:Aged; D019985:Benchmarking; D017028:Caregivers; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D017051:Hospice Care; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013727:Terminal Care; D006113:United Kingdom; D014584:User-Computer Interface