Person-centered care is the cornerstone of high-quality palliative and hospice care. Hospice Cape Breton, under the Palliative Care Service within the Nova Scotia Health Authority in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada, has recently piloted a tool to help us achieve this goal. The Personal Patient Assessment Tool (PPAT) was developed to improve the provision of person-centered care. Staff at the hospice use the PPAT to gather information that clinicians and volunteers can then use to improve care experiences and build relationships with patients (e.g., facilitate conversations, and identify opportunities to do something special for the patient). The PPAT collects information about preferences, hobbies, traditions, holidays, important people, and what brings joy to the patient. This information is then used to proactively tailor the patient’s stay at the hospice. Importantly, the PPAT collects non-medical information; that is, the information is not considered “personal health information” (as defined by regulatory bodies) and does not influence medical decisions made by healthcare teams.
Staff and patients’ families have reported that the PPAT helps provide better person-centered care and aids in relationship building. Given this anecdotal success and strong interest from our patient and family advisors, the Cape Breton Palliative Care Service and our broader provincial Palliative Care Network want to explore how the tool can be refined and spread to other hospice and palliative care sites across the province. Thus, with the help of a provincial grant, we have launched a research project on the PPAT. This research is exploring academic literature and surveying national and international organisations to identify tools being used to enhance patient, family, and staff experiences. Ultimately, this data will be used to refine the PPAT with stakeholders (e.g., staff, volunteers, patients, and families) to improve and optimise the use and spread of the tool.
We need your help! We are seeking input from hospice and palliative care organisations about tools like the PPAT being used to gather non-medical information from patients and families. Understanding how other organisations leverage the use of non-medical information to enhance person-centered care will inform the PPAT’s refinement and help us improve hospice care.
If you know of, or use, a tool like the PPAT in a hospice or palliative care setting, please reach out to Professor Mary Ellen Macdonald to share your insights (maryellenmacdonald@dal.ca). Alternatively, you can fill out a quick survey, which can be accessed through the following link: https://research-study.nshealth.ca/surveys/?s=FD9YFDX8HTFLC49L. Please note the close date of the survey will be on May 10th, 2024. Thank you.
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