Operational features for hospital palliative care programs: Consensus recommendations

Hospital palliative care programs in the United States are growing in number, scope, and sophistication. The nation's major public-private partnership organization charged with advancing the quality of health care, the National Quality Forum (NQF), developed A Framework for Preferred Practices for Palliative and Hospice Care Quality: A Consensus Report. This Framework establishes a set of 38 preferred practices associated with quality palliative care. In an effort to provide supportive operational detail about specific features necessary for program sustainability and growth and to help guide hospitals starting new or strengthening existing palliative care programs, the Center to Advance Palliative Care convened a consensus panel to develop recommendations for key operational features for hospital programs. Twenty-two recommendations are grouped into 12 domains and include "must-have" and "should-have" features. The recommendations can be used for strategic planning of new or established hospital-based palliative care programs.