Abstract

Not knowing about a child's death can result in poor quality of care coordination among staff and poor quality bereavement care for families. The purpose of this project was to create, implement, and evaluate an automated Patient Death Notification policy and procedure (PDNPP).Baseline and follow-up surveys of clinical staff.Implementation of a PDNPP that created an automated, systematic process for staff notification of patient deaths.Ninety-six percent of the staff rated the PDNPP as a significant improvement; 91% reported being "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with the PDNPP, whereas only 44% of the staff were satisfied with the process at baseline.Implementation of an automated PDNPP was feasible and improved staff satisfaction about how they were informed of patient deaths. Staff also reported being notified about patient deaths more quickly, performing their jobs more efficiently, being able to avoid doing something that might upset the deceased patient's family, and being able to better provide support to bereaved families.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2011.07.002

View details for Web of Science ID 000297011800002

View details for PubMedID 22045367

View details for PubMedCentralID PMC3463934