Patient Outcomes in Palliative Care in Australia: National report for January - June 2019

The Australian palliative care sector is a world leader in using routine clinical assessment information to guide patient centred care and measure patient and family outcomes. Providers of palliative care are commended for their commitment to excellence in delivering evidence-based, patient-centred care by using the routine Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) assessment framework and contributing patient data toward national outcome measurement and benchmarking. PCOC acknowledges the dedication and willingness of clinicians to improve the care of patients, their families and caregivers. The information collected is not just data - it represents the real-life outcomes of over 40,000 Australians who die an expected death every year. While the focus of this report is on the most recent information relating to January to June 2019, results over the last three years are also presented to highlight achievements and improvement in outcomes. The most recent information corresponds to 24,562 patients, having 31,826 episodes of care and 73,209 palliative care phases from 138 services who provide palliative care in hospital / hospice or in the person\u27s home. The purpose of benchmarking is to drive improvement and palliative care service innovation