In the healthcare sector, particularly within hospice and palliative care, nurturing a robust patient-provider relationship is crucial. Patients and their loved ones rely on hospices to provide unwavering support. To cultivate trust with patients and their families, it is essential to demonstrate a steadfast dedication to transparency, accountability, and evidence-based practices. By using shared indicators and reporting frameworks, hospice societies can underscore their commitment to delivering the highest calibre of care, fostering a solid and reliable rapport with their patients and communities.

In the spring of 2023, the British Columbia Hospice and Palliative Care Association (BCHPCA) initiated the formation of the Information and Technology (IT) Task Group with the goal of co-developing a set of standardized metrics and reporting framework with hospice societies in British Columbia (BC) and the Yukon. The IT Task Group consists of individuals who have extensive experience working in hospice palliative care and a keen interest in data collection and analysis. The IT Task Group has also engaged the help of experts in the field and hospice societies in BC and the Yukon to test and provide feedback on data collection tools.

This work comes in part as a response to increased calls from the province for standardized data models in healthcare-related fields. In the Government of Canada’s report The Framework on Palliative Care in Canada-Five Years Later: A Report on the State of Palliative Care in Canada they state that “the 2023 data reflects some improvements to home care reporting and overall access to palliative care. However, data are needed to better measure access to care and experiences across settings in all provinces and territories, as well as who was not able to access palliative care” (Section 4.3, 2023). The federal budget in 2023 included multi-year funding for Working Together to Improve Health Care for Canadians, part of this initiative is to modernize “the health care system with standardized health data and digital tools.” This aligns with the work being done by the BCHPCA and the IT Task Group to create standardized data reporting practices for hospice societies across BC and the Yukon.

The IT Task Group’s goals include establishing common language and indicators, mapping core hospice services across BC and the Yukon, and developing a standardized reporting framework. By engaging with hospice societies of all sizes across BC and the Yukon, the BCHPCA and IT Task Group seek to lead the way in building standardized data reporting practices for hospice societies, with hospice societies, by hospice societies. We believe the benefits of this work go far beyond a standardized reporting framework, and include:

• Improve individual hospice societies' understanding of their care and service delivery trends

• Improve understanding of the services provided by hospice societies across the province, gaps in service and developing areas of need

• Foster improved communication with health authorities 

• Create opportunities for enhanced inter-organizational communication and connections

• Boost the visibility of the vital work being done in our communities and help the public understand the crucial role hospices play

• Allow for the possibility of communicating collective impact to current and potential funders

• Create new opportunities, including working towards a provincial funding model

At its core, the work of this task group is to understand how hospice societies contribute to their communities, increase access to funding, and ultimately support hospice societies in providing the highest level of client care within hospice palliative care, including grief and bereavement services, to clients across BC and the Yukon.