Documenting the contributions of palliative care social work: testing the feasibility and utility of tracking clinical activities using medical records

ABSTRACT

Access to data on quality metrics can better equip palliative care social workers to identify and address gaps in patient care, establish standards and accountability for social work functions on the interdisciplinary team, and evaluate the impact of interventions. The objective of this demonstration project was to create and pilot a data collection format in the patient electronic medical record (Epic) for documentation of social work metrics at each inpatient consultation, and to build corresponding pilot reports relevant to quality improvement goals. The successful implementation and initial pilot reports were reviewed for the feasibility of longer-term applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Hospital social work
• quality metrics
• palliative care

Acknowledgments

With gratitude for the wealth of professional and academic resources provided by the Zelda Foster Leadership Fellowship in Palliative and End of Life Care at the NYU Silver School of Social Work, and to the many supportive colleagues at Community Health Network, Indianapolis, IN who helped bring this project to fruition.