Quality Account 2015-2016
Peace Hospice Care is a centre of excellence dedicated
to improving the quality of life for patients and families
facing a life-limiting illness by providing care and
supporting them in the setting of their choice
www.peacehospicecare.org.uk
Respecting the value of every life
Registered Charity Number 1002878
Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
Part 1
Chief Executive’s Statement
On behalf of the Board of Trustees and Senior Leadership Team it gives me great pleasure to present
the fourth Quality Account for Peace Hospice Care. The account looks back on progress that we have
made during 2014-2015 and outlines some of our key priorities for improvements to services for
patients and families in 2015-2016.
The aim of this report is to give clear information about the quality of our services so that patients
feel safe and well cared for and their carers and families are supported and reassured that all of our
services are of a very high standard and well governed at all levels throughout the organisation.
The high standards of care provided by Peace Hospice Care would not be possible without the
dedication of our hardworking staff along with the very many willing volunteers who give freely of
their time and talents along with our Board of Trustees and I would like to take this opportunity to
thank them all for their efforts.
Here at Peace Hospice Care we have a culture of continually working to monitor and improve quality.
We actively seek feedback from our patients and their families and staff are always encouraged to
make suggestions and feedback to members of the team and Trustees.
I am responsible for the preparation of this report and its contents. To the best of my knowledge,
the information reported in this Quality Account is accurate and a fair representation of the quality
of healthcare services provided by our Hospice.
Sue Plummer
Chief Executive (left organisation in June 2015)
Declan Carroll, Chief Executive from 22nd June 2015
Respecting the value of every life
Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
Introduction
Peace Hospice Care provides specialist palliative care and End of Life Care for adults in South West
Hertfordshire facing a life limiting illness.
Our services include an inpatient unit, hospice at home service and a day service delivered
through our Starlight Centre. The Starlight Centre also offers a wide range of outpatient and day
rehabilitation, and wellbeing and counselling therepeutic services. It aims to help patients from
when they are first diagnosed with a serious illness. We also carry out educational support to care
homes.
Peace Hospice Care is committed to supporting and developing its staff and volunteers to ensure the
most effective use of its resources.
Peace Hospice Care operates from a building in Watford town centre covering the borough council
areas of South West Herts:• Watford
• Three Rivers (Rickmansworth / Chorleywood)
• Hertsmere (Borehamwood / Potters Bar)
Our Mission:
Peace Hospice Care is a centre of excellence dedicated to improving the quality of life for patients
and families facing life limiting illnesses by providing care and support in the setting of their
choice.
All the charity’s services are delivered free of charge to patients in South West Hertfordshire by a
highly skilled team of specialists.
Core Values:
Respect: High regard for the worth, dignity and uniqueness of each person, with respect for their
right to privacy.
Integrity: Honesty, openness and sincerity.
Commitment to Excellence: Commitment to the highest standards delivered with competence and
pride, and with a flexibility and openness to change.
Releasing time to care by creative service developments, promoting innovation and consolidating
the good work that we know makes a difference.
Respecting the value of every life
Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
Part 1.1
Looking Forward:
Priorities for improvement 2015-2016
Peace Hospice Care is fully compliant with the Essential Standards of Quality and Safety as set out
in Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 and the Health & Social Care Act 2008
(Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.
The Care Quality Commission most recently carried out an unannounced inspection in May 2013,
and all standards assessed, were met, and as such, the Board did not have any areas of regulatory
shortfall to include in the priorities for improvement for 2015-2016.
We are now working towards our next inspection by the Care Quality Commission looking at the 5
Key Lines of Enquiry:
Are we safe?
Are we effective?
Are we responsive?
Are we caring?
Are we well-led?
Priorities of Care for 2015-2016
We have identified the top priorities to further improve the services delivered to our patients and
their relatives for the year 2015-2016. We have selected priorities that will impact directly on each
of the three domains of quality; patient safety, clinical effectiveness and patient experience and
they are:Priority 1 – Patient Safety: To implement SystmOne
We have identified that we need to change our system of Electronic Records from Crosscare to
SystmOne.
We believe that this will improve the quality of our care by enabling all our clinical staff to use
integrated information systems and new hardware. With a new clinical software system we will be
able to share digital care records with Hertfordshire Community Trust, district nurses, palliative
care teams and many of the local GPs. Along with new hardware this will:
• give our community based service mobile, prompt access to electronic patient records
• allow digital capture of clinical data at point-of-care
• allow for safer interventions and reduce risk by providing our clinical staff with the most
relevant and up-to-date clinical records
• give our clinical staff more time with their patients and clients
How was this identified?
We have known for some time that in order to ensure seamless care for palliative care patients we
needed to have, prompt, joined up communication between organisations, and that moving to
SystmOne will facilitate this to happen.
How do we plan to achieve this?
We were successfully awarded a grant from the Department of Health Nurse Technology fund to
project manage this implementation for us. We plan to implement SystmOne by December 2105.
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Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
Priority 2 – Clinical Effectiveness: To implement the OACC measures
(Outcome Assessment and Complexity Collaboration)
This is a collection of 6 Outcome Measures identified by a team of palliative care experts who believe
that the collection of national data will enable comparisons between services and outcomes in
different parts of the country for benchmarking and auditing purposes.
They believe routine use of these outcome measures in palliative care could improve services
provided to patients and families, as these services may then be better customised to individual
needs based on the outcome data collected. The data can also be used as a feedback mechanism
wherein clinical teams can make effective use of the data collected, both at an individual patient
and organisational level to systematically improve the quality of palliative care services and to
minimise variations in practice.
Six outcome measures have been selected for use in the OACC project these include;
• Phase of illness,
• the Australia-modified Karnofsky Performance Status (AKPS),
• Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale (IPOS),
• Views on Care (VoC) measure,
• the Barthel index (for inpatient use only) and
• the Zarit carer interview.
We plan to implement at least 2 of these outcome measures over the next year.
How was this identified?
This is a recommendation from The Hertfordshire Palliative Network Site Specific Group and National
Palliative Cancer Initiative, endorsed by Hospice UK.
How do we plan to achieve this?
We plan to work with local hospices to implement these measures, ideally getting support from the
Cicely Saunders Institute who developed the measures, to assist us with their implementation.
Priority 3 – Patient Experience: To implement recommendations following review of our
bereavement service
Description of priority
To develop and maintain a bereavement service which widens access and delivers a range of services
that meets a range of bereavement and support needs in a variety of ways.
Aims: To have a service
• With a single point of access
• Responsive to client needs
• Free at point of delivery
• Appropriate for client needs
How was this identified?
By reviewing our current service
How do we plan to achieve this?
• To integrate the bereavement team to become part of the wider Starlight services team.
• To appoint a leader of the Counselling and Bereavement team
• To recruit more counsellors
• To work with other local hospices to sub contract some of our work
Respecting the value of every life
Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
Looking Back:
Priorities for Improvement 2014-2015
In our last Quality Account we identified the following priorities for 2014-2015 and
below we report on progress made against them.
Priority 1: Patient Experience:
We planned to involve people who have used our hospice services in evaluating what we do, having
identified this as a priority from national plans; such as the NHS document Putting Patients First
and from local initiatives.
How we planned to achieve this:
We planned that people who have used our services:
• would be invited to join groups where new services are discussed and planned
• would be invited to read and comment on leaflets about our services before going to print
• would carry out the annual assessment of our care environment (PLACE)
• would be asked to evaluate our services in different ways
Achievements against our plans:• Two relatives of former inpatient unit patients joined our group planning improvements to our
remembrance services
• We created a database of people who have said they would be happy to give feedback on our
services in the future
• We ensured that all new information leaflets were reviewed by service users prior to going to
print
• We carried out the 2015 PLACE assessment with a team that included a current patient
• We introduced Real Time Surveys in our Starlight (out-patient) Service and our inpatient unit.
This is where volunteers assist patients and carers to complete satisfaction surveys with the use
of a web-based system on ipads. This has enabled us to not only have an improved response rate
but more timely feedback enabling us to respond promptly to any concerns.
Priority 2: Patient Safety:
We planned to use our Quality Metrics data submitted quarterly to Hospice UK as part of their
National Benchmarking Programme to compare ourselves with national and local hospices.
We decided to make it a priority to demonstrate to the safety and quality of our care to our
stakeholders.
Data we collected included: The number of patient falls, pressure ulcers and the number of
medicine errors, as well as bed occupancy.
How we planned to achieve this:We planned to submit the Quality Metrics data on a quarterly basis to Hospice UK, and analyse the
results, benchmarking our practice nationally and at local level.
We planned this year to place particular emphasis on reducing the number of pressure ulcers that
patients develop in our care.
Achievements against our plans:We have continued to submit data on a quarterly basis to Hospice UK and, on the same frequency
received data back from them at both a national and “hospice category” level (the categories are
based on the number of inpatient beds a hospice has).
Respecting the value of every life
Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
In light of our decision to focus attention on the reduction of pressure ulcers, we implemented
several measures (detailed later in this Account).
Using this benchmarking data we were able to monitor our pressure ulcer rate and have been able to
see an improvement. We will, however, continue to focus on this area.
Priority 3: Clinical Effectiveness
We planned to introduce “The Individualised Care Plan for the Dying Person” as the replacement for
the Liverpool Care Pathway (the document used to record the care for a dying patient).
The Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People identified five priority areas for the care of
dying people. These were:
• The possibility that a person may die within the next few days or hours is recognised and
communicated clearly, decisions should be made and actions taken in accordance with the
person’s needs and wishes, and these are regularly reviewed and decisions revised accordingly.
• Sensitive communication takes place between staff and the person who is dying, and those
identified as important to them.
• The dying person, and those identified as important to them, are involved in decisions about
treatment and care to the extent that the dying person wants.
• The needs of families and others identified as important to the dying person are actively
explored, respected and met as far as possible.
• An individual plan of care, which includes food and drink, symptom control and psychological,
social and spiritual support, is agreed, coordinated and delivered with compassion.
How we planned to achieve this
The Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire Specialist Palliative Network group, produced a template care
plan called the “Individualised Care Plan for the Dying Person” (that fulfils the 5 priority areas) for
the management of the care of dying people within the locality.
We planned to pilot this in the inpatient unit at Peace Hospice Care, review and then fully
implement.
Achievements against our plans
Two template documents were produced; an End of Life care plan initial medical assessment and
an End of Life care plan daily review. The first document is to be completed when a patient is
recognised by the multidisciplinary team to be entering the final few days of life and the other, as
the name suggests, is to be used to review the care that person and their carers require on a daily
basis during the last few day of life. These documents were trialled on the inpatient unit in paper
format during the winter and some further changes were made. They have now been implemented
on our electronic patient records system, with plans to audit compliance in 6 months’ time.
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Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
Part 2
Statement of assurance
The following are statements that all providers must include in their Quality Account.
Many of these statements are not directly applicable to palliative care providers and therefore
explanations of what these statements mean are also given.
2.1 Review of Services
During 2014/2015 Peace Hospice Care provided the following services through its main clinical
areas listed below:
Inpatient Unit
Hospice at Home
Starlight Services (Day Care/ Outpatient Services)
For 2015 /2016 we have reviewed our services and now group them as:
• Inpatient Unit
• Community Services (Community Liaison and Hospice at Home)
• Starlight Services (Well-being and Rehabilitation team and Bereavement and Counselling team)
These services are supported by our Education and Quality Teams
2014 / 2015 saw a period of change for our Starlight Service moving to a rehabilitation and selfmanagement model of care.
Our Starlight Service today is made up of 2 multi-disciplinary teams – one to provide well-being and
rehabilitation, and the other to provide bereavement support and counselling.
The rehabilitation and wellbeing team focus on providing individual and group sessions. Examples
of the new groups and courses (as well as continuing with counselling and the traditional Day Care
day) are managing breathlessness (INSPIRE), two weekly exercise circuits for differing functional
levels, Hope (self-management six week course) , Friendship group, Feel Good Friday (for yoga,
beauty and massage amongst other things), creative company (creative craft and socialisation
group) meditation and complementary therapy.
The Bereavement and counselling group continue to provide both pre and post bereavement and
have now extended their service to offer counselling to patients for such things as adjusting to
illness.
We have also increased our Community Services; Hospice at Home has extended their hours to work
alongside district nurses to provide overnight rapid response support for palliative care / end of life
care patients, in partnership with the NHS Overnight District Nursing Service. This service has been
favourably evaluated.
We have also received one year funding as one of seven nominated End of Life Care Social Action
Projects, funded by the Cabinet Office. This service is part of a national research project providing
community neighbours volunteers.
Peace Hospice Care has reviewed all the data available to them on the quality of care in all of these
services.
Respecting the value of every life
Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
2.2 Income generated
The income generated by the NHS represents approximately 20% of the overall cost
of running these services. The balance is raised by the Hospice through voluntary
donations, its own shops and other fundraising.
2.3 Participation in Clinical Audit
As a provider of specialist palliative care, Peace Hospice Care is not eligible to participate in any
of the national clinical audits or national confidential enquiries. This is because none of the
2014/2015 audits or enquiries related to specialist palliative care.
The Hospice will also not be eligible to take part in any national audit or confidential enquiry in
2015/2016 for the same reason.
2.4 Local Clinical Audits
Clinical audits have taken place within Peace Hospice Care throughout the year and form part of
the annual audit cycle programme within the Hospice’s overall Quality Implementation Plan. The
clinical audit cycle includes audits on infection, prevention and control, documentation, and
compliance to identified policies.
Any changes to practice that are recommended following the audits are monitored by the clinical
governance team to ensure care delivery is safe and effective. Further monitoring is part of the
cycle.
2.5 Research
The number of patients receiving NHS services provided or subcontracted by
Peace Hospice Care in 2014/2015 that were recruited during that period to participate in research
approved by a research ethics committee was: None.
In March 2015, however, we gained ethics approval to take part in an End of Life Care Social Action
Evaluation Research project, funded by the Cabinet Office.
2.6 Use of the CQUIN payment framework
Peace Hospice Care income in 2014/2015 was not conditional on achieving quality
improvement and innovation goals through the Commissioning for Quality and
Innovation payment framework because it is a third sector organisation and as such
was not eligible to participate in this scheme during the reporting period.
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Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
2.7 The Care Quality Commission
Peace Hospice Care is required to register with the Care Quality Commission and its current
registration status is unconditional. Peace Hospice Care has no conditions on registration.
Peace Hospice Care has not participated in any special reviews or investigations by
the Care Quality Commission during 2014/2015. However, the Hospice was successful in meeting all
required standards when last inspected by the Care Quality Commission in May 2013.
2.8 Data Quality
Peace Hospice Care did not submit records during 2014/2015 to the Secondary Users service for
inclusion in the Hospital Episode Statistics which are included in the latest published data. The
Hospice is not eligible to participate in this scheme.
However Peace Hospice Care does submit data to the Minimum Data Set (MDS) for
Specialist Palliative Care Services collected by National Council of Palliative Care on a yearly basis,
with the aim of providing an accurate picture of hospice and specialist palliative care service
activity.
2.9 Clinical coding error rate
Peace Hospice Care was not subject to the payment by results clinical coding audit
during 2014/2015 by the Audit Commission.
Respecting the value of every life
Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
Part 3
Quality overview
3.1 The National Council for Palliative Care:
Peace Hospice Care provides data (Minimum Data Sets) to the National Council for Palliative Care on
an annual basis and the table below is a subset of that data.
2013-2014
2014-2015
Inpatients
Total patients
227
236
Occupancy
73.6%
82.3%
% of new patients
- non cancer
14%
22.3%
Total patients
134
217
Occupancy
23%
26.1%
Average no. of
attendances per session
5
4.54
Total patients
346
445
% of new patients
- non cancer
25%
27.2%
Total number of clients
623
501
Total contacts
3520
3940
Day care/Starlight
Hospice at Home
Bereavement services
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Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
3.2 Quality Markers we have chosen to measure
In addition to the limited number of suitable quality measures in the national data set for palliative
care, we have chosen to measure our performance against the following:
Indicator: 1st April - 31st March
2013-2014
2014-2015
Complaints (clinical)
Total number of complaints
0
0
The number of complaints upheld in full
0
0
The number of complaints upheld in part
0
0
The number of serious patient incidents (excluding falls)
0
0
The number of slips, trips and falls
25
39
The number of patients who experienced a fracture or
other serious injury as a result of a fall
1
1
The number of patients who developed pressure damage
whilst in the inpatient unit
8
- grade 3
18 (2
16 - grade 2)
The number of patients known to be infected with MRSA
on admission to the inpatient unit
2
1
The number of patients infected with MRSA whilst in the
inpatient unit
0
0
The number of patients admitted to the inpatient unit
with Clostridium difficile
0
1
The number of patients infected with Clostridium difficile
whilst in the inpatient unit
0
1
Infection Prevention and control
Medicine- Related incidents (Classified by Hospice UK as Level 1 or above)
- level 2
25 (2
23 - level 1)
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Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
Explanation
Falls:
Although our falls have increased from 2013/2014, this year’s total is in line with national average
of approximately 40 per year for a Hospice of this size. We will however, continue to work on the
management and prevention of patient falls over the forthcoming year. This includes undertaking a
Route Cause Analysis for falls that have resulted in any harm and monitoring our care plans and care
rounding system.
Pressure Ulcers:
The number of our inpatient unit patients developing pressure ulcers has increased during
2014/2015. However, we had identified this as a problem at the beginning of the year, put measures
in place to reduce them and now have fewer pressure ulcers. The national data shows the average
number of pressure ulcers developing in a Hospice of our size per quarter is 4, and for the last two
quarters, we have had 2. We will continue with the work we have started in this area (explained in
the next section.)
Medicine – Related Incidents:
There has been an increase in the amount of medicine related incidents over the past year. Whilst
this can only partly be contributed to improved reporting and a “zero-tolerance” attitude, we
identified it was an area where further training and support was required. Having put measures in
place to provide this, we now note a significant improvement and more in line with the national
average from the information received from Hospice UK.
Quarter 1
Quarter 2
Quarter 3
Quarter 4
PHC
AV
PHC
AV
PHC
AV
PHC
AV
Occupancy
83%
78%
86%
77%
80%
78%
87%
78%
Falls per 1000 occupied
beds
20
11
4
11
6
10
8
10
Pressure ulcers per 1000
occupied beds
6
4
10
4
2
4
2
4
Medicine incidents per
1000 occupied beds
4
7
7
5
10
7
5
6
Information from Hospice UK Benchmarking Project 2015
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Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
3.3 Clinical Audit
The audits set out in the Hospice annual clinical audit plan for 2014/2015 were completed.
Several audits were linked to patient safety for example on use of Patient Bed Rails and Infection
Prevention and Control. Other audits were “spot checks” to ensure recommendations from previous
audits had been implemented, for example on the completion of drug charts. Other audits were on
compliance to policies for example to the Lone Worker policy.
Examples where improvements were made as a result of an audit:
Tissue Viability: Having identified that we needed to improve our pressure ulcer prevention care
in the inpatient unit, we carried out two audits – one looking at the records of all patients who
had developed pressure ulcers in the past 6 months and one looking at the records pertaining to
pressure area care of all patients in the unit on one particular day. From our findings we made the
following changes:
• New beds and mattresses for all inpatients (this had already been identified as a need prior to
the audit)
• Strengthened the role of the Tissue Viability Nurse Champion, including her teaching on our
Clinical Mandatory Teaching programme
• Improved documentation: amended care plans
• Instigated regular spot checks of record keeping
Medicine – Management:
We carried out two audits (in June and August 2014) relating to the management of Controlled
Drugs. One was by an independent pharmacist and the other was the annual Hospice UK Controlled
Drug audit carried out by the Director of Patient Services and her deputy.
Both identified areas to improve on to ensure the safe management of Controlled Drugs. Remedial
action plans were drawn up and followed, with all required changes implemented. A further audit
will take place in August 2015.
We also identified from regular “spot checks” that we needed to improve on our completion of
prescription charts (nurses signing to say that a drug had been given). We introduced a new
monitoring form and process to feedback to whichever staff were involved, and have now seen
improvements in this area. However, we acknowledge that the monitoring will need to be
maintained.
Nutrition:
The Hospice UK Nutrition audit was carried out in early 2015 with several recommendations made,
for example the nomination of a Nutrition Champion for the Hospice. We are looking at this and the
other recommendations made, in conjunction with a “scoping” project funded by Macmillan, jointly
with Hospice of St Francis, whereby a dietician is employed one day a week to evaluate the dietetic
needs of both Hospices. She will be submitting her recommendations to Macmillan later this year.
The choice of audit topics is partly informed by our clinical incident reporting system which
successfully encourages open reporting in a blame free culture.
Plans for 2015/2016:
To carry out identified audits in the annual audit plan and implement any recommendations.
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Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
3.4 Other Quality Initiatives & Service Developments
Clinical Governance Framework
In 2014/2015 we continued to strive for quality improvement as set out in our annual Quality
Implementation Plan as part of our Clinical Governance Structure. This included the work of
subgroups that have been set up to take responsibility for particular clinical governance / quality
issues.
The focus of the subgroups has recently been revised to reflect current issues and now stands as
being:
• Patient information and involvement
• Infection Prevention and Control
• Medicine Management
• Tissue Viability (including nutrition)
• Patient safety (including falls, moving and handling, safeguarding)
• Clinical effectiveness / best practice (for latest practice / guidance that does not relate to any of
above groups)
The subgroups submit annual action plans detailing quality improvements, audits, and training
to be undertaken throughout the year, specific to their area and based on the latest published
guidance and evidence-based practice, to the Clinical Governance Implementation Group.
The group membership is multi-disciplinary and includes staff of all grades, chaired by a member
of the Senior Clinical team. This enables a cross-section of Hospice staff to participate in clinical
governance.
The Clinical Governance Implementation Group report to the Clinical Governance Committee to
assure them of the quality of care, who report to the Board of Trustees.
PLACE: The annual PLACE (Patient-Led Assessment of the Care Environment) was carried out in
April this year and included for the first time, an existing patient on the assessment team. The main
finding from the assessment was the poor appearance of the inpatient unit bathrooms (the Hospice
staff were already working on securing some funding to enable refurbishment). Plans are underway
for this to occur in 2015 / 2016.
3.5 Feedback from Service Users
Peace Hospice Care places great importance on feedback from people who use our services, and as
such made it one of our Priorities for 2014/2015.
Feedback is gained from a variety of sources including patients, carers and other professionals.
Throughout 2014/2015 we continued to ensure that anyone who had used any one of our clinical
services was offered the opportunity to complete a paper questionnaire.
However as the response rate to the paper questionnaires was not as good as we felt it could be and,
gave us limited information, we decided to introduce Real Time Surveys in our Starlight Service and
the inpatient unit.
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Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
This is where volunteers are on hand to ask patients to complete a web-based survey towards the
end of their stay or group sessions. As the surveys are electronic, results can be collated in “real
time” which enables us to respond swiftly to any concerns.
Thanks to the dedication of our small team of volunteers, this project has worked well.
• We have increased our survey response rate in the Starlight Service from an average of 6
responses per quarter, to 20.
• The inpatient unit real time survey was more recently set up so we do not have comparative data yet
• We plan to set this up in Hospice at Home in the autumn.
The findings from the Real Time Survey have been very positive:
• 100% believed they were getting the best care and treatment.
For 2015/2016 we will continue with the Real Time Surveys in the inpatient unit, Starlight
Services and also implement in the Community.
We also plan to introduce Comments Cards throughout the Hospice to enable anyone who is visiting
to be able to comment on the service provided.
Any feedback from patients / families and carers we receive will continue to be monitored by the
Patient Information and Involvement Group which reports to our Clinical Governance Group. There
is an annual plan for areas for improvement and initiatives to implement.
COMMENTS FROM PATIENTS/CARERS
Starlight Services
‘Heartfelt thank you for looking after … , you were so caring and thoughtful towards her. She enjoyed
her visits to Starlight on Wednesdays and felt very safe’
September 2014
Inpatient Unit
‘… was reluctant to leave her home and fought it for weeks, but the care and comfort she found at the
end of her life was priceless’
‘The use of your family room was invaluable and allowed us to let off steam while being close to … .’
December 2014
Hospice at Home
‘Not only did you care for …’s wellbeing, but you also showed true concern for the family’s feelings at
such a difficult time (you supported us all!). Thanks to your excellent care … was able to remain at
home and pass away peacefully. Heartfelt and sincere thanks’
December 2014
Complaints:
Complaints are taken extremely seriously and we always try to identify learning that can drive
improvements in the clinical areas. Complaints are thoroughly investigated and reported at the
Clinical Governance Group meeting and to the Board of Trustees. Immediate action is taken to
rectify any shortfalls or concerns identified.
We did not receive any clinical complaints for the period April 1st 2014 – March 31st 2015.
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Peace Hospice Care Quality Account 2015-2016
3.6 Board of Trustee Visits
The Board of Trustees take their responsibilities seriously and in light of this we have decided to
continue with our Trustee Announced Visits. They take place twice a year, and aim to include the
Trustees talking to patients and their families about their experiences of hospice services where
appropriate. Comments, in almost all circumstances are very positive and action plans are adopted
to take forward any points arising.
3.7 Supporting Statements
The clinical standards and performance of Peace Hospice Care are regularly and carefully monitored
and scrutinized by the Clinical Governance Committee. The Quality Account for 2015-2016 gives an
accurate account of the plans for, and the achievements in, the excellent services provided by Peace
Hospice Care.
Ginny Edwards, Chair Clinical Governance Committee, Peace Hospice Care
From Herts Valley Clinical Commissioning Group
Herts Valleys CCG sees Peace Hospice Care as a key partner in the delivery of integrated end of life
care for the patients of West Hertfordshire. We value the excellent open and regular communication
that we have and we are committed to working with them to continue to deliver a high quality and
much valued service to our population.
During 14/15 Peace Hospice continued to provide high quality services that prioritised patient
safety, clinical effectiveness and enhancing patients’ and their families’ experience.
Looking forward to 15/16, Herts Valleys CCG is delighted to continue to work closely with the
hospice as a key partner in helping us to achieve our End of Life Strategy. The strategy reflects the
aims of both organisations to continually improve and provide good quality end of life care to its
patients and the community.
Gemma Thomas June 2015
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