TY - JOUR
T1 - Bereaved Family Members' Evaluation of Hospice Care
T2 - What Factors Influence Overall Satisfaction with Services?
AU - Rhodes, Ramona L.
AU - Mitchell, Susan L.
AU - Miller, Susan C.
AU - Connor, Stephen R.
AU - Teno, Joan M.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a grant from the National Alzheimer's Association (IIRG-05-13412).
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank the staff of the Brown University Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research, Hebrew SeniorLife Institute for Aging Research, and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization who have supported this project and provided administrative support.
PY - 2008/4
Y1 - 2008/4
N2 - As patients near the end of life, bereaved family members provide an important source of evaluation of the care they receive. A study was conducted to identify which processes of care were associated with greater satisfaction with hospice services from the perception of bereaved family members. A total of 116,974 surveys from 819 hospices in the United States were obtained via the 2005 Family Evaluation of Hospice Care, an online repository of surveys of bereaved family members' perceptions of the quality of hospice care maintained by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Overall satisfaction was dichotomized as "excellent" vs. "other" (very good, good, fair, and poor). Using multivariate logistic regression, the association between overall satisfaction and the individual item problem scores that compose the Family Evaluation of Hospice Care were examined. Bereaved family members were more likely to rate overall satisfaction with hospice services as "excellent" if they were regularly informed about their loved one's condition (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 3.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.61-3.91), they felt the hospice team provided the right amount of emotional support to them (AOR = 2.21, 95% CI = 2.07-2.38), they felt that the hospice team provided them with accurate information about the patient's medical treatment (AOR = 2.16, 95% CI = 2.06-2.27), and they could identify one nurse as being in charge of their loved one's care (AOR = 2.02, CI = 1.92-2.13). These four key processes of care appear to significantly influence an "excellent" rating of overall satisfaction with hospice care.
AB - As patients near the end of life, bereaved family members provide an important source of evaluation of the care they receive. A study was conducted to identify which processes of care were associated with greater satisfaction with hospice services from the perception of bereaved family members. A total of 116,974 surveys from 819 hospices in the United States were obtained via the 2005 Family Evaluation of Hospice Care, an online repository of surveys of bereaved family members' perceptions of the quality of hospice care maintained by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Overall satisfaction was dichotomized as "excellent" vs. "other" (very good, good, fair, and poor). Using multivariate logistic regression, the association between overall satisfaction and the individual item problem scores that compose the Family Evaluation of Hospice Care were examined. Bereaved family members were more likely to rate overall satisfaction with hospice services as "excellent" if they were regularly informed about their loved one's condition (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 3.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.61-3.91), they felt the hospice team provided the right amount of emotional support to them (AOR = 2.21, 95% CI = 2.07-2.38), they felt that the hospice team provided them with accurate information about the patient's medical treatment (AOR = 2.16, 95% CI = 2.06-2.27), and they could identify one nurse as being in charge of their loved one's care (AOR = 2.02, CI = 1.92-2.13). These four key processes of care appear to significantly influence an "excellent" rating of overall satisfaction with hospice care.
KW - Hospice
KW - end-of-life care
KW - family members
KW - satisfaction
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2007.12.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2007.12.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 18294811
AN - SCOPUS:40949157538
SN - 0885-3924
VL - 35
SP - 365
EP - 371
JO - Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
JF - Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
IS - 4
ER -