Skip to main content
NCBI home page
The British Journal of General Practice logoLink to The British Journal of General Practice
. 1998 May;48(430):1224–1227.

Developing the Cambridge palliative audit schedule (CAMPAS): a palliative care audit for primary health care teams.

M S Rogers 1, S I Barclay 1, C J Todd 1
PMCID: PMC1410190  PMID: 9692279

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Problems with the provision of palliative care have been reported. Audit is one means of improving care. Earlier audits of primary care palliative care have been initiated by general practitioners (GPs) and are predominantly retrospective record reviews. Widely applicable methods for the audit of primary care palliative care do not exist. AIM: To develop relevant palliative care standards and to devise an audit schedule (the Cambridge palliative audit schedule, CAMPAS) suitable for monitoring palliative care in diverse primary care settings. METHOD: Primary health care team (PHCT) members collaborated at all stages. Reasonable outcomes and acceptable interventions for PHCTs were identified and standards developed. Each standard was constructed to ensure uniform interpretation, and CAMPAS was structured to collect data necessary for determining whether the standards were met. RESULTS: Over 50% of PHCTs (n = 20) in the health district were recruited and trained to use CAMPAS. A total of 876 contacts with 29 patients was recorded by PHCTs using CAMPAS. Considerable inter- and intra-PHCT variation was found in the achievement of the standards. CONCLUSIONS: The favourable participation rate suggests commitment to audit and improvement in patient care. Overall, the standards were reported to be suitable. Although 100% achievement of some standards may be unrealistic, the level of attainment for many suggests that it is possible. CAMPAS has been reported to be a useful structure for recording assessments and monitoring care, as well as a usable audit schedule. As an audit tool, it identified areas in need of improvement and facilitated feed-back to participants. Future audit is required to determine whether improvements in care have been effected.

Full text

PDF
1224

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Addington-Hall J., McCarthy M. Dying from cancer: results of a national population-based investigation. Palliat Med. 1995 Oct;9(4):295–305. doi: 10.1177/026921639500900404. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Blyth A. C. Audit of terminal care in a general practice. BMJ. 1990 Apr 14;300(6730):983–986. doi: 10.1136/bmj.300.6730.983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cartwright A. Changes in life and care in the year before death 1969-1987. J Public Health Med. 1991 May;13(2):81–87. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Doyle J., Terry Y., Webber J., Webb J. One last chance to get it right. Health Serv J. 1991 May 9;101(5251):22–23. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Grande G. E., Barclay S. I., Todd C. J. Difficulty of symptom control and general practitioners' knowledge of patients' symptoms. Palliat Med. 1997 Sep;11(5):399–406. doi: 10.1177/026921639701100511. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Grimshaw J. M., Russell I. T. Achieving health gain through clinical guidelines II: Ensuring guidelines change medical practice. Qual Health Care. 1994 Mar;3(1):45–52. doi: 10.1136/qshc.3.1.45. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Herd E. B. Terminal care in a semi-rural area. Br J Gen Pract. 1990 Jun;40(335):248–251. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Higginson I., McCarthy M. Measuring symptoms in terminal cancer: are pain and dyspnoea controlled? J R Soc Med. 1989 May;82(5):264–267. doi: 10.1177/014107688908200507. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hinds C. The needs of families who care for patients with cancer at home: are we meeting them? J Adv Nurs. 1985 Nov;10(6):575–581. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.1985.tb00550.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hinton J. Can home care maintain an acceptable quality of life for patients with terminal cancer and their relatives? Palliat Med. 1994;8(3):183–196. doi: 10.1177/026921639400800302. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Jones R. V., Hansford J., Fiske J. Death from cancer at home: the carers' perspective. BMJ. 1993 Jan 23;306(6872):249–251. doi: 10.1136/bmj.306.6872.249. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Parkes C. M. Home or hospital? Terminal care as seen by surviving spouses. J R Coll Gen Pract. 1978 Jan;28(186):19–30. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Todd C. J., Still A. W. Communication between general practitioners and patients dying at home. Soc Sci Med. 1984;18(8):667–672. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(84)90295-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Todd C., Still A. General practitioners' strategies and tactics of communication with the terminally ill. Fam Pract. 1993 Sep;10(3):268–276. doi: 10.1093/fampra/10.3.268. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Townsend J., Frank A. O., Fermont D., Dyer S., Karran O., Walgrove A., Piper M. Terminal cancer care and patients' preference for place of death: a prospective study. BMJ. 1990 Sep 1;301(6749):415–417. doi: 10.1136/bmj.301.6749.415. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Williams O. What is clinical audit? Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 1996 Sep;78(5):406–411. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The British Journal of General Practice are provided here courtesy of Royal College of General Practitioners

RESOURCES