This 3-year project will increase the uptake of benchmark end-of-life (EOL) care for elderly patients with advanced illness. It involves the development of quality indicators associated with primary care best practices in EOL care and promoting their integration into the EMR of practicing primary care physicians in British Columbia.
The investigators want to find out if integrating the palliative approach into the electronic medical record (EMR) of primary care physicians can enhance EOL care in ways that are measurable, scalable and sustainable. Increasing the knowledge about identification, assessment and pro-active care planning and the technology supports for those processes in practice will mitigate unnecessary suffering and promote quality care for elderly patients with advanced disease, and promote more efficient use of health care resources.
The project is being done at primary care practice sites at Fraser Health and several Divisions of Family Practice in BC. Primary care physicians will also be directly involved as they are well positioned to provide palliative and end of-life care to patients.