Moving towards an enhanced community palliative support service (EnComPaSS): protocol for a mixed method study.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Technology
• Palliative Care
• Digital Health Implementation

Background:

• Increasing demand for palliative care due to an ageing population and rise in chronic conditions.
• A UK hospice is implementing mobile technology to enhance community services and patient experience.
• Limited evidence exists on the sustainability and scalability of technology in end-of-life care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a longitudinal evaluation of innovative technology implementation in community palliative care.
• To provide evidence for designing more efficient and effective community palliative care services.
• To assess the impact of mobile platforms on communication, data collection, and clinical record access for nurses.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods approach will be employed to analyze organizational, economic, and patient-level factors.
• An organizational model will be developed to guide data collection and analysis.
• Data will be gathered through interviews, focus groups, observation, and routinely collected data.

Main Results:

• The implementation of new technology necessitates significant changes in established working patterns for community palliative care delivery.
• The study aims to provide valuable baseline evidence on the delivery of palliative and end-of-life care services.
• The introduction of a digital nursing dashboard and mobile platform is expected to improve clinical interventions and patient safety.

Conclusions:

• The new community-based palliative care delivery model is developed in collaboration with international specialists.
• Findings will offer crucial baseline evidence for optimizing palliative and end-of-life care services.
• This evaluation will contribute to understanding the long-term impact and scalability of digital health solutions in hospice care.