Improving Palliative Care Team Meetings: Structure, Inclusion, and “Team Care”

2016 Jan 7
01/07/2016
By Brennan CW, Kelly B, Skarf LM, Tellem R, Dunn KM, Poswolsky S.

Increasing demands on palliative care teams point to the need for continuous improvement to ensure teams are working collaboratively and efficiently. This quality improvement initiative focused on improving interprofessional team meeting efficiency and subsequently patient care. Meeting start and end times improved from a mean of approximately 9 and 6 minutes late in the baseline period, respectively, to a mean of 4.4 minutes late (start time) and ending early in our sustainability phase. Mean team satisfaction improved from 2.4 to 4.5 on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The improvement initiative clarified communication about patients’ plans of care, thus positively impacting team members’ ability to articulate goals to other professionals, patients, and families. We propose several recommendations in the form of a team meeting “toolkit.”

Keywords: efficiency; interprofessional; model for improvement; palliative care; quality improvement; team meeting.

More publications on the subject

The cultural context of patient’s autonomy and doctor’s duty: passive euthanasia and advance directives in Germany and Israel
01/11/2010
Abstract The moral discourse surrounding end-of-life (EoL) decisions is highly complex, and a comparison of Germany and Israel can highlight the impact of cultural
Selected issues in palliative care among East Jerusalem Arab residents
01/01/2010
Abstract Understanding of cultural context is important when working with Palestinian patients, particularly in Israeli hospitals. Cultural competence includes individual assessment of communication needs
End-of-life needs as perceived by terminally ill older adult patients, family and staff
01/09/2010
Abstract Purpose of the study: A comparison of inpatient end-of-life needs as perceived by terminally ill older adult patients, family, physicians and nurses, is lacking.
The cultural context of end-of-life ethics: a comparison of Germany and Israel
01/07/2010
No abstract available
Family caregiving to hospitalized end-of-life and acutely ill geriatric patients
01/08/2010
Abstract The article examines family caregiving to hospitalized older adults at the end of life (EOL). The stress stress process model was used to
Blaming the messenger and not the message
01/06/2010
No abstract available