Measuring care at end of life

Measurement and Improvement Framework

The purpose of the Care at the End of Life: Measuring and Improving End of Life Care Framework (the Framework) is to support Hospital and Health Services (HHS) to develop a local plan for collecting performance data and use it to drive quality improvement activity.

Queensland Health is committed to continually improving the quality of care provided to every patient, every time. The cornerstone of quality improvement is evidence. Having meaningful data helps to identify issues or gaps in services and demonstrate whether changes that have been implemented have resulted in an improvement.

The Framework is not intended to be prescriptive by mandating data sets and schedules for collection and reporting, but rather to guide each HHS as they evaluate their own data gaps and determine how data can best drive quality improvement in their local environment. The Framework provides suggested approaches to measuring the quality of care provided to people through the end of life.

Useful resources

Queensland Health

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care

End-of-Life Care Audit Tool

The End-of-Life Care audit tool (the audit) was developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care to support hospitals to measure and identify opportunities to improve the quality of care provided to patients through the end-of-life.

To support Queensland Health staff in administering and analysing the data from the audit, the Care at End of Life Project Team has partnered with the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Service Survey and Audit Team to adapt the audit for its measuring system. It is an online, web-based, data collection tool accessible via computer and mobile devices that can access the Queensland Health network.

The audit will enable Queensland Health teams to compile data about patients who have died within their facility or hospital. Furthermore, it will provide a picture of how care is currently being delivered and identify opportunities to improve the quality of care provided through the end of life.

Last updated: 18 February 2021