The service assessment section encourages you to consider various aspects of their service and how they function. Below is an explanation on what the service assessment is and how you may wish to complete it. Alternatively, you can watch our instruction video.
There are 24 questions covering six areas, along with optional questions at the end about your service. The questions are based on research evidence about hospice at home services and what matters most when optimising the service and improving patient care.
It includes 24 questions in six areas, all based on what matters most when optimising the service and improving patient care. The assessment is not a benchmarking exercise, it is not about comparing or judging; it simply provides an opportunity for reflection on ways in which the service may be able to develop. Only you can see your assessment answers – we do not keep any information you enter in the toolkit.
After you answer the questions, the toolkit creates a spider web diagram showing which parts of hospice at home are working well and where there’s room for improvement. You can also access evidence-based information and advice on how other hospice at home teams in England optimised their services.
It is up to you how you use the toolkit. However, we suggest that it is best completed as a team activity. At a minimum, we would recommend:
- Someone who leads or has responsibility for Hospice at Home (e.g. HAH manager)
- A senior decision maker, who may not be part of the HAH service but holds responsibility for HAH and its funding
For a rich, detailed assessment of your service, which often generates interesting discussions and team development, we would recommend adding one or more of the following participants:
- Someone who is involved in directly delivering care (e.g. a nurse or HCA)
- A commissioner of palliative care services in your area
- A patient, carer or member of the public from your organisation’s Patient and Carer Involvement group (or similar)
- Other multidisciplinary team members e.g. spiritual care, social worker, therapist, counsellor
We suggest that you set aside 2 hours for toolkit in the first instance. If you have a smaller group working together on it, you will likely complete the assessments more quickly and have time to look at advice and other information. If you have a larger group, you may take more time in discussion and you may want to delegate a smaller group to look through the information and advice at a follow up meeting.
The information provided on this site, and all of the research evidence currently available about Hospice at Home services, is freely available whether you decide to complete the assessment or not.
Have you done the service assessment already? You can skip right to suggestions for optimising your HAH service.