Performance improvement in hospice care

Performance improvement program for reducing home health care costs in hospice.

Background The healthcare system in the United States has been plagued by service limitations imposed by financial constraints. Hospice is no exception, and hospice providers must continually seek out ways to provide cost-effective care. In response to this environment, many hospices are making a concerted effort to find efficient, low expenditure approaches to providing care without compromisi...

Prognostication in hospice care: can the palliative performance scale help?

BACKGROUND Accurate prognostication of the trajectory of an illness provides multiple benefits in end-of-life care. Prognostic information facilitates more realistic decision making regarding ongoing treatment, fosters risk-benefit considerations of specific interventions, and contributes to appropriate utilization of health care services. OBJECTIVE The Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) has ...

Hospice care.

Measuring hospice care: the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization National Hospice Data Set.

Hospice has seen rapid growth in recent years, but there is a lack of consistency among hospices when it comes to compliance with standards of care. Consequently, hospices vary in performance and in services they provide. With state hospice organizations, the NHPCO developed a National Data Set (NDS) intended to understand demographics, practices, and outcomes; illustrate industry effectiveness...

Quality and performance improvement in critical care

In the past decade, there is an increased focus on quality and safety in health care. Decreasing variation, increasing adherence to evidence based guidelines, monitoring processes, and measuring outcomes are critical for improving quality of care. Intensivists have broad knowledge of hospital organization, and need to be leaders in quality improvement efforts.