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Hospital deaths dashboard: care indicators
  1. Ollie Minton,
  2. Charlotte Ede,
  3. Stephen Bass,
  4. Simon Tavabie,
  5. Amy Bourne and
  6. Andreas Hiresche
  1. Palliative Medicine, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, Brighton, Brighton and Hove, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ollie Minton, Palliative Medicine, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, Brighton BN2 5BE, Brighton and Hove, UK; ollie.minton{at}nhs.net

Abstract

Objectives We wanted to create a medical/nursing led data collection tool to allow for an ongoing audit of the quality of deaths in a teaching hospital. We wanted to be able to produce a visual summary to monitor our involvement, use of PRN medication, recognition of death, treatment escalation plans and communication aspects. We feel these are good surrogate indicators for quality end-of-life care.

Methods We designed a purpose built spreadsheet which we have designed as an abbreviated version of the UK national audit tools. We involved a number of our core medical trainees to iterate the data collection so it could be done in a timely manner with a simple training guide. Our collective approach meant we have made this as straightforward as possible to roll out and maintain data collection.

Results We collected 100 cases over a period of 6 months (August 2019 to January 2020). We created a dashboard looking at the core elements of end-of-life care and found bar treatment escalation planning all aspects were completed the majority of the time with near 100% communication to relevant family and friends.

Conclusions Our sample collection tool provides a useful ongoing indicator for the quality of end-of-life care in the trust and to provide a timely infographic quarterly to feedback to interested members of the trust. We hope to be able to continue over some years to collate themes and trends. We would encourage other hospital teams to adopt our approach.

  • end of life care
  • hospital care

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Footnotes

  • Twitter @simontavabie

  • Contributors All authors (OM, CE, SB, AB, ST, AH) contributed to data collection tool design and data collection. OM wrote the paper and all authors (OM, CE, SB, AB, ST, AH) approved its content. OM is the guarantor.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent for publication Not required.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

  • Data availability statement Data are available in a public, open access repository.