An Investigation of care planning decisions in advanced illness in the Alfred Health Region

Chief Investigators: Dr Susan Lee, Prof Paul Komesaroff, Prof Margaret O’Connor

Project Officer: Dr Heather Tan

The aim of this project is to explore decision making and care delivery in advanced and life limiting illness for non-cancer clinical populations in general medicine, palliative care and aged care; to identify gaps and deficiencies in end-of-life care planning and propose strategies to improve this planning. The project is an interdisciplinary one and includes both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. An emphasis will be placed on community consultation and engagement.

The project will proceed in two phases. Phase one which is already underway involves a scoping of the region and the issues and includes a literature review, taking advice from a broad based stakeholder reference group, identification of existing decision making and care planning protocols, conducting a medical chart audit of deaths within a 3-6 month period, comparing these with other existing audits and drafting at least two indicative cases for each clinical group.

Phase two, a consultative phase, will include the gathering of qualitative data, through focus groups and interviews, utilizing questions arising out of phase one of the study. The purpose of this second phase will be to further identify gaps and deficiencies in the system and to define strategies to improve communication and cooperation among health care providers and the community in the Alfred health region.

The project will also inform health care authorities regarding areas of new policy development which accommodate health consumer decision-making in these areas of health care. The involvement of stakeholders in all stages of the project ensures that policy identification for change is embedded in the research process.