This textbook on palliative social work is a companion volume to the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine and the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing. To that end, this chapter will accomplish the following:

♦ Despite a national agenda for outcome measurement, benchmarking, and quality improvement in health care, relatively little is known empirically about the quality of social work in palliative care.

♦ Numerous validated tools that can be useful in measuring outcomes in social work at the patient level are now available. The data collected can be aggregated and used as part of larger...

This textbook on palliative social work is a companion volume to the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine and the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing. To that end, this chapter will accomplish the following:

♦ Despite a national agenda for outcome measurement, benchmarking, and quality improvement in health care, relatively little is known empirically about the quality of social work in palliative care.

♦ Numerous validated tools that can be useful in measuring outcomes in social work at the patient level are now available. The data collected can be aggregated and used as part of larger process-improvement initiatives.

♦ Organizational change is a more global approach to process change and quality improvement. Strategic change is necessary for organizations to remain viable and relevant and must be executed in a systematic manner to be successful.