Center to Improve Care of the Dying

TOOLKIT OF INSTRUMENTS TO MEASURE END OF LIFE

Joan Teno, of the Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research at Brown University, and faculty and staff at the Center to Improve Care of the Dying, have assembled a comprehensive annotated bibliography of instruments to measure the quality of care at the end of life. Also generated from this project is a draft set of instruments that have proven useful for monitoring system performance for end-of-life care. This project was made possible by funding from the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

It is the aim of this effort to provide health care institutions with the necessary tools to assess, improve and enhance care for dying patients and their loved ones. Similar to birth, dying should be a family experience and we advocate that measures examine both the patient and family experience. A chart review instrument, surrogate questionaires, and patient questionaire can be downloaded or by emailing Barbara Kreling, Center to Improve Care of the Dying, at ihobak@gwumc.edu.

• Executive Summary of the Toolkit of Instruments to Measure End of life care (TIME) conference
• Measuring Quality of Life
• Examining Advance Care Planning
• Instruments to Assess Pain and Other Symptoms
• Instruments to Assess Depression and Other Emotional Symtpoms
• Instruments to Assess Functional Status
• Instrument to Assess Survival Time and Aggressiveness of Care
• Instruments to Assess Continuity of Care
• Instruments to Assess Spirituality
• Bibliography of Instruments to Assess Grief
• Bibliography of Instruments to Assess Caregiver and Family Experience
• Instruments to Assess Patient and Family Member Satisfaction with the Quality of Care
• CICD Home Page

Questions or comments -- contact Barbara Kreling, ihobak@gwumc.edu