Palliative care checklist: A documentation improvement tool.

142 Background: Palliative care (PC) encompasses medical, psychosocial and spiritual domains. Checklists are utilized for standardization and improvement in care, service, and safety. We implemented a PC checklist for patient encounters with the aim of improving clinical documentation. Methods: A PC checklist was drafted based on a consensus of 12 palliative care specialists. Dictations from 25 encounters for 13 clinical staff 3 months prior and 3 months post implementation of the checklist were compared using 10 items on the checklist. Improvement in documentation is not considered as a change in the delivery of care as all physicians followed the same practice patterns reinforced by academic activities like conferences, grand rounds, and interdisciplinary team meetings. Results: There were improvements in the documentation before and after the checklist for scores on Cut-down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye-opener (CAGE) questionnaire: 38% vs. 81% (p=0.0014), psychosocial history: 69% vs. 95% (p=<.0001) and overa...