Donovan, Helen2011-08-292011-08-292010-05http://hdl.handle.net/10147/141067The Quality Standards for End-of-Life Care in Hospitals have been developed in partnership with healthcare staff and interested parties including bereaved relatives. They set out a shared vision of the end-of-life care each person should have and what each hospital should aim to provide. The Standards identify what hospitals should strive for and how they can ensure that the essential elements of a consistent quality approach to end-of-life care are in place in all parts of the hospital whether death is unexpected or expected. The Standards take into account the fact that delivery of end-of-life care is governed not only by people’s identified needs but also by their expressed preferences as well as their cultural and spiritual values. The underlying message of the Standards is that time is of the essence and that provision of high quality care is paramount. The standards have been developed as part of the Hospice Friendly Hospitals (HFH) Programme, a five-year national programme initiated by the Irish Hospice Foundation in May 2007 in partnership with the HSE and supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Dormant Accounts Fund and the Health services National Partnership Forum. Because there is evidence to show that applying palliative care/hospice principles at end of life results in better outcomes for patients, families and staff, the mission of the HFH Programme is to put hospice principles into hospital practice. The key aims of the programme are: To develop Standards for end-of-life care in hospitals • To develop the capacity of hospitals to meet these Standards • To improve the overall culture of care and organisation in hospitals regarding all aspects of end of life, dying, death and bereavement The development of these Standards is an important stimulus to promote ongoing improvement of end-of-life care in hospitals.enHOSPITALSQUALITY STANDARDHOSPICEIRELAND