Table 1 The Gold Standards Framework for Care Homes
From: Implementing a quality improvement programme in palliative care in care homes: a qualitative study
The GSFCH is a multidimensional framework of enabling tools, tasks and resources used in care homes for older people, with training and central support from the GSF team and local support from a GSFCH facilitator. |
Rather than being prescriptive, the GSFCH can be adapted to meet local needs. The focus is on organising and improving the quality of care for care home residents in the last year of life in collaboration with GPs, primary care and specialist palliative care teams. |
Key elements include multidisciplinary resident review meetings, completion of a prognostic register (to prompt discussion of life expectancy and care planning) and associated advance care planning, and discussion of resuscitation status. |
The target outcomes are improvements in advance care planning, communication team working, reducing the number of residents being transferred to hospital, and high quality clinical care. |