Quality indicator in palliative care: A review

Mitsunori Miyashita; Kazuki Sato; Tatsuya Morita; Chisato Hamashima; Tomotaka Sobue

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Quality indicator in palliative care: A review

VernacularTitle:緩和ケアのQuality Indicator
Author: Mitsunori MIYASHITA ¹ ; Kazuki SATO ¹ ; Tatsuya MORITA ² ; Chisato HAMASHIMA ³ ; Tomotaka SOBUE ⁴
Author Information

1. Department of Adult Nursing/Palliative Care Nursing, School of Health Sciences and Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo
2. Department of Palliative and Supportive care, Palliative Care Team and Seirei Hospice, Seirei Mikatahara Hospital
3. Research center hor cancer prevention and screening, National Cancer Center
4. Center for Cancer Control and Information Service, National Cancer Center
Keywords: palliative care; end-of-life care; quality indicators; quality assurance; evaluation
From:Palliative Care Research 2007;2(2):401-415
CountryJapan
Language:Japanese
Abstract: As measuring the quality of palliative care is considered to be important, quality indicators (QIs) that are able to extracted from medical database or from medical chart review have recently been developed in Western countries. In this paper, we reviewed the development of QIs and actual measurements collected in palliative care settings. The present results indicate that QIs based on data extracted from such sources as the cancer registry, medical claim, and palliative care databases, include items regarding aggressive treatment, hospice use, and intensive care units visits. Furthermore, QIs based on data extracted from medical chart reviews were developed for use with community-dwelling elderly patients. As with other QIs, QIs utilized at ICUs, QIs utilized at nursing homes, and evaluation of care from the perspective of bereaved families was conducted. In the future, QI items and methods appropriate for Japanese medical settings should be developed and their feasibility, reliability, and validity should be examined.