Background A third of hospital patients are in their last year of life and almost 50% of people die in hospital. Achievement of preferred place of death is a national metric with regards to measuring quality of end of life care. At Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust (DGFT) we have implemented the Gold Standards Framework (GSF) and developed a method to report on achievement of preferred place of death for patients identified as GSF.

Method An end of life care document is completed for patients identified as GSF on the electronic patient record used at DGFT and this includes recording of preferred place of care. Working with the data analysts and configuration team a Power BI system is able to report on outcomes by ward, division and as a hospital including achievement of preferred place of death.

Results The power BI is able to identify where was the preferred place of death and if this has been achieved. Initial results indicate that for approximately 30% of patients identified as GSF preferred place of death across all adult wards was achieved. There is variation between wards which will support them to drive improvements. For approximately a third of patients the preferred place of death is not recorded in the document. To improve recording on the tracking board for each ward there is a GSF column and a house icon will now appear when preferred place of care has been recorded on the end of life care document.

Conclusion It is important to measure the quality of end of life care and achievement of preferred place of death is a national metric which in Dudley we are now able to report for patients identified as GSF and support the development of individual plan of care.