• D Berghaus, A Schütz, U Hammer, E Gaser, U Wedding, and W Meißner.
• Klinik für Innere Medizin II, Abteilung Palliativmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Jena, Erlanger Allee 101, 07747, Jena, Deutschland. david.berghaus@med.uni-jena.de.
• Schmerz. 2019 Jun 1; 33 (3): 236-243.

BackgroundStructure and process parameters are not sufficient for adequate quality assurance in specialized palliative home care (SAPV). Asking the patients and their relatives for their assessment is crucial. A focus group in Jena, Germany, developed the quality assurance in specialized palliative home care (QUAPS) questionnaire for this assessment of outcome parameters, which was tested in two studies.ObjectivesThe aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of a questionnaire for patients, relatives and SAPV teams.Material And MethodsThe questionnaire collects outcome parameters on a Likert scale as well as the distress of respondents using the numeric rating scale (NRS). In the pilot study, QUAPS I was tested in three SAPV teams. The survey was simplified in the follow-up study, QUAPS II, where 17 teams were included. Both studies were conducted with an ex-post-facto design.ResultsIn QUAPS I, complete datasets could be obtained for 43 out of 308 surveyed cases. In QUAPS II, 169 complete datasets resulted from 371 surveyed cases. The SAPV staff assessed the QUAPS II survey as being organizationally feasible. The questionnaire shows good internal consistency and high approval for the surveyed aspects of SAPV care. Ceiling effects occurred. More than 70% of respondents reported a distress score >5.ConclusionsThe simplified survey in QUAPS II resulted in a higher rate of complete datasets. The detected ceiling effects restrict the conclusions of the survey. Biases like social desirability cannot be ruled out. In the future, a combination of different questionnaires (e. g. integrated palliative outcome score [IPOS] and QUAPS) should be explored.

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