Examples of palliative care gap analysis*
| Palliative care guideline | Met | Partially met | Unmet | Status | Comments |
| Screen/identify early at-risk ED patients. | |||||
| Communicate difficult news after sudden traumatic death. | |||||
| Early goals of care conversations. | |||||
| Obtain advance directives and Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST)/Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) forms. | |||||
| Family presence in resuscitation. | |||||
| Assess all seriously ill patients for palliative care needs. | |||||
| Palliative care is delivered in conjunction with curative, life-prolonging or disease-modifying trauma care. | |||||
| Palliative care is delivered by an interdisciplinary team. | |||||
| Pain and symptom management, communication, and prognostication are provided. | |||||
| Patients and families receive education about their condition, its impact on prognosis, and healthcare trajectory. | |||||
| A predictive or prognostic tool is used for estimating survival time and tracking palliative care needs. | |||||
| Identification of the surrogate or proxy decision maker is documented on patient’s medical record within 24 hours of admission. | |||||
| The advance care plan is discussed and developed with patient/family within 72 hours. | |||||
| Family meetings are used early to discuss outcomes, expectations and goals of care. | |||||
| Psychosocial/emotional support is assessed and a plan is created. |
*Adapted from the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Project Palliative Care Best Practices Guidelines (https://www.facs.org/-/media/files/quality-programs/trauma/tqip/palliative_guidelines.ashx, accessed October 5, 2020).