Lead health service: St Vincent's Hospital

The National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards explicitly outline that health services review the quality of end-of-life care provided against planned goals of care. Hospitals typically have regular mortality and morbidity review meetings where in-patient deaths are considered and deliberations made regarding potentially reversible causes and whether the coronial inquiry is required. These reviews do not usually extend to examining the quality of health care provided leading up to death or whether patient goals of care were met.

This project seeks to address current gaps in delivering standardised high-quality care by developing a systematic clinical appraisal process (QUALDEATH) for reviewing the quality of dying for patients with advanced cancer. Information gathered via QUALDEATH will build on current routine end-of-life care data already being collected at WCMICS hospitals.