National palliative care performance indicators – Results of the 2007 performance indicator data collection

The 2007 national collection of data on palliative care performance indicators is the third in a series of collections measuring performance against the high-level performance indicators agreed by the Palliative Care Intergovernmental Forum in 2003. The indicators are designed to assist evaluation of progress against the objectives of the National Palliative Care Strategy in relation to the planning and delivery of palliative care services (but not against clinical performance). Previous reports in this series analysed performance of palliative care agencies against the performance indicators in 2005 and 2006.

This report is the last report on palliative care performance indicators to be produced under the authority of the Australian Health Care Agreements (2003-2008). Some methodological issues with the current performance indicators and data definitions are identified in this report and could be considered in any future reporting arrangements.

Overall, palliative care services reported a similar level of performance against indicators as in 2006, with the exception of assessment of agencies against Palliative Care Australia (PCA) standards (performance indicator 2), which continued the decline observed between 2005 and 2006.

While it is difficult to determine the reasons for the reported reduction in the proportion of agencies assessing themselves against PCA standards, this report does identify a number of factors which may have affected responses and performance. While a minority of agencies reported routinely using the PCA standards for assessment, more than 50% of agencies did report undertaking routine assessment or accreditation against standards generally.

© Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008 reproduced with permission
The full report is available from the AIHW website
National palliative care performance indicators 2007