Long-Term Care
In measuring outcomes of end-of-life care, a study in Health Services Research found significant gaps in:
- Continuity of care;
- Advance care planning;
- Spirituality; and
- Wellbeing of the care provider.
The authors indicate that raising standards in the quality of the individual outcome measures will bolster reforms to improve the overall quality of end-of-life care. Researchers also noted that efforts to boost the quality of end-of-life care would benefit from wider use of such standards to ensure that end-of-life care services can be compared at all facilities.
The study concludes that more research is necessary to compare these outcome measures across care settings, populations and clinical conditions (Mularski et al., Health Services Research, October 2007). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.