title: Increasing the Number of Outpatients Receiving Spiritual Assessment: A Pain and Palliative Care Service Quality Improvement Project.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Spirituality is a patient need that requires special attention from the Pain and Palliative Care Service team. This quality improvement project aimed to provide spiritual assessment for all new outpatients with serious life-altering illnesses.
  
  
  METHODS
  Percentage of new outpatients receiving spiritual assessment (Faith, Importance/Influence, Community, Address/Action in care, psychosocial evaluation, chaplain consults) at baseline and postinterventions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Interventions included encouraging clinicians to incorporate adequate spiritual assessment into patient care and implementing chaplain covisits for all initial outpatient visits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The quality improvement interventions increased spiritual assessment (baseline vs. postinterventions): chaplain covisits (25.5% vs. 50%), Faith, Importance/Influence, Community, Address/Action in care completion (49% vs. 72%), and psychosocial evaluation (89% vs. 94%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Improved spiritual assessment in an outpatient palliative care clinic setting can occur with a multidisciplinary approach. This project also identifies data collection and documentation processes that can be targeted for improvement.
authors.affiliation: Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC; Pain and Palliative Care Service, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Blanca J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Gomez-Castillo
authors.affiliation: Pain and Palliative Care Service, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Rosemarie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hirsch
authors.affiliation: Pain and Palliative Care Service, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Hunter
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Groninger
authors.affiliation: Pain and Palliative Care Service, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.affiliation: Pain and Palliative Care Service, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: M Jennifer
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Pain and Palliative Care Service, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Jayne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.affiliation: Pain and Palliative Care Service, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; Spiritual Care Department, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pollack
authors.affiliation: Pain and Palliative Care Service, National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. Electronic address: aberger@cc.nih.gov.
authors.forename: Ann M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Berger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002977:Clergy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D029181:Spirituality; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Spirituality; palliative care; quality improvement; spiritual assessment