Quality Measures for Community-Based, Rural Palliative Care Programs in Minnesota: A Pilot Study

Area of Science:

• Palliative Care
• Health Services Research
• Rural Health

Background:

• Palliative care programs are less common in rural areas compared to urban settings.
• The emergence of community-based programs necessitates standardized quality measures for evaluation and improvement.
• Existing measures may not be suitable for the unique context of rural palliative care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and field test a standard set of quality measures for rural, community-based palliative care programs.
• To assess clinical quality, patient/family experience, and impact on healthcare utilization.
• To determine the feasibility and utility of these measures for program evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Pilot study conducted in five rural community-based palliative care programs (2012-2013).
• Inclusion of 138 palliative care patients.
• Data collection via chart abstraction, patient/family surveys, healthcare utilization data, and program surveys, supplemented by phone interviews.

Main Results:

• Participating programs found the quality measures feasible to collect.
• Collected data facilitated care assessment, comparison, and process improvement.
• Program staff indicated a desire to continue tracking these measures.

Conclusions:

• The developed standard quality measures are feasible for collection in rural, community-based palliative care settings.
• The measures are useful for program evaluation and quality improvement.
• The pilot study supports the adoption of these standardized measures for rural palliative care programs.