Quality Standard Details
Palliative Care: Care for Adults With a Serious Illness
- Publication Date
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2024-April-01
- Status
- Published
- Topic Area
- Palliative Care
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Palliative care refers to the relief of suffering and improvement of the quality of living and dying, using a holistic approach. Palliative care addresses people’s physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and practical needs, as well as their associated expectations, hopes, and fears. It helps people with a serious illness and their family prepare for and manage end-of-life choices, the process of dying, and coping with loss and grief.
Despite the clear benefits of palliative care, there are many gaps in its delivery in Ontario, including access to palliative care services. Whether or not people are able to die in the place they choose also reveals gaps in the provision of palliative care across the province. Increased access to palliative-specific home care and home visits from physicians could reduce the number of people who die in hospital.
Ontario Health’s Clinical and Quality Standards Program partnered with the Ontario Palliative Care Network to develop the Palliative Care quality standard.
This quality standard addresses palliative care for adults with a serious illness, and for their family and care partners. It focuses on palliative care in all health settings, for all health disciplines, and in all health sectors. It includes information about general palliative care that applies to all health conditions. Palliative care can benefit individuals and their care partners as early as at the time of diagnosis of a serious illness through the end of life and bereavement.
Quality Standard in Brief
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Quality Statement 1: Identification and Assessment of Needs
People with a serious illness have their palliative care needs identified early through a comprehensive and holistic assessment.
Quality Statement 2: Timely Access to Palliative Care Support
People with identified palliative care needs have access to palliative care support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Quality Statement 3: Advance Care Planning – Substitute Decision-Maker
People with a serious illness know who their future substitute decision-maker is. They engage in ongoing communication with their substitute decision-maker about their wishes, values, and beliefs, so that the substitute decision-maker is empowered to participate in the health care consent process if required.
Quality Statement 4: Goals-of-Care Discussions and Consent
People with identified palliative care needs or their substitute decision-makers have discussions with their interprofessional health care team about their goals of care to help inform their health care decisions. These values-based discussions focus on ensuring an accurate understanding of both the illness and the treatment options so the person or their substitute decision-maker has the information they need to give or refuse consent to treatment.
Quality Statement 5: Individualized, Person-Centred Care Plan
People with identified palliative care needs collaborate with their primary care provider and other health care professionals to develop an individualized, person-centred care plan that is reviewed and updated regularly.
Quality Statement 6: Management of Pain and Other Symptoms
People with identified palliative care needs have their pain and other symptoms managed effectively, in a timely manner.
Quality Statement 7: Psychosocial Aspects of Care
People with identified palliative care needs receive timely psychosocial support to address their mental, emotional, social, cultural, and spiritual needs.
Quality Statement 8: Education for People With a Serious Illness, Substitute Decision-Makers, Families, and Care Partners
People with a serious illness, their future substitute decision-maker, their family, and their care partners are offered education about palliative care and information about available resources and supports.
Quality Statement 9: Care Partner Support
Families and care partners of people with identified palliative care needs are offered ongoing assessment of their needs, and are given access to resources, respite care, and grief and bereavement support, consistent with their preferences.
Quality Statement 10: Transitions in Care
People with identified palliative care needs experience seamless transitions in care that are coordinated effectively among settings and health care providers.
Quality Statement 11: Setting of Care and Place of Death
People with identified palliative care needs, their substitute decision-maker, their family, and their care partners have ongoing discussions with their health care professionals about their preferred setting of care and place of death.
Quality Statement 12: Interprofessional Team-Based Care
People with identified palliative care needs receive integrated care from an interprofessional team, which includes volunteers.
Quality Statement 13: Education for Health Care Providers and Volunteers
People receive palliative care from health care providers and volunteers who possess the appropriate knowledge and skills to deliver high-quality palliative care.
Supporting Documents
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Patient guide for this quality standard
Know what to ask for in your care
Placemat for this quality standard
A quick-reference resource for clinicians that summarizes the quality standard and includes links to helpful resources and tools
Quality improvement tools and resources for health care professionals, including an action plan template
Supplementary information to support the data collection and measurement process
Additional Resources
If you would like to receive these resources, please send us a message using our contact form:
- Case for improvement (slide deck)
Share why this standard was created and the data behind it, to get the support you need to put it into practice - Technical specifications
See the technical specifications for the indicators within the quality standard - Summary of the public feedback we received
- Case for improvement (slide deck)
Last Updated: February 24, 2026
