Background information
Sirona has reviewed palliative care in one Swedish region. Palliative care is provided when the aim is not to cure, but to relieve suffering and promote quality of life for patients with progressive, incurable disease or injury. Palliative care is based on an approach that aims to improve the quality of life of patients and their families by preventing and alleviating suffering through early detection, assessment and treatment of pain and other physical, psychosocial and spiritual problems that may arise in the context of life-threatening illness.
Challenge
The aim of the audit was to assess whether palliative care is provided in an appropriate manner in accordance with current objectives, decisions and guidelines. The audit focused on specialized palliative care, i.e. palliative care provided by multi-professional teams with specific expertise in palliative care.
Implementation
The review was conducted through semi-structured interviews with key persons, document studies of external and internal documents, and comparative analysis between documents and interview results to review and summarize consistency/discrepancy. Quantitative analyses were also conducted to investigate whether access to palliative care is equitable and whether the care provided meets set quality goals. Data were obtained from the Swedish Palliative Care Register and from the region's operations.
Outcome
The audit resulted in a report describing Sirona's observations and assessments of palliative care in the region. The overall assessment was that palliative care in the region is being provided in an appropriate manner and in accordance with current objectives, decisions and guidelines. Based on the results of the audit, SIRON made recommendations for the highest priority improvement actions.
