This is a count of the number of patients who were admitted to a specialist palliative care inpatient bed within seven days of referral during the reporting month. It is possible that the same patient can be referred twice to the service during the reporting month. Each episode of care is the be counted in the data returns. Rationale is: to count the number of patients accessing specialist inpatient beds within seven days. To determine how long each patient waited for service in calendar days. This is not a capture of how long it took the service provider to provide specialist palliative care (SPC) to a patient but rather a capture of how long the patient waited to receive his/her service. It is noted that Inpatient units do not provide triage/admissions during the weekends. Long-term analysis of this metric will outline if there is a need for this protocol to be examined in the future.

A count of the total number of patients accessing specialist palliative care inpatient beds within seven days of referral/request for transfer.

Not applicable.

Reporting is aggregated at the national, Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO), Local Health Office (LHO) and institution level.

Data collected to support these indicators are a combination of collecting primary data and data from national data collectors in the LHOS/CHOs. Data is sourced by the specialist palliative care units who forward to their Community Healthcare Organisation (CHO). The CHO submits the validated data to the Business Information Unit (BIU) Community Healthcare Team Data on a monthly basis via excel. The activity data reported is based on Performance Activity and Key Performance Indicators outlined in the National Service Plan 2022 and the HSE Operational Plans 2022. The Performance Report is overseen by the National Planning Oversight Group (NPOG), led by the Chief Operations Officer on behalf of the CEO. NPOG monitors performance against planned activity, as outlined in the National Service Plan, and highlights areas for improvement. A Management Data Report is also produced each month which provides more detailed data on the Metrics covered in the Performance Report.

Public reporting.

www.hse.ie/eng/services/publications/performancereports/ www.hse.ie/eng/services/publications/kpis/2024-palliative-care-services-nsp-metadata.pdf www.hiqa.ie/areas-we-work/health-information/data-collections/hse-performance-reports-palliative-care

Unable to locate full specifications. Some details are available here: www.hse.ie/eng/services/publications/kpis/2024-palliative-care-services-nsp-metadata.pdf