SHBC1583

X.W.HENG¹, C.M.YEE² 

Woodlands Health¹, Tan Tock Seng Hospital²

Palliative Medicine patients require holistic care. To identify service gaps, it is important to understand satisfaction with care. Caregivers’ responses are good surrogate indicators for care quality.

Dover Park Hospice (DPH) was involved in the National Caregiver Survey (CGS). The CGS was designed based on FAMCARE-2 and conducted with bereaved caregivers between March and April 2019, in English and Mandarin by a trained surveyor. Caregivers rated care satisfaction on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from “very satisfied” to “very dissatisfied”. A positive response is defined as “very satisfied” or “satisfied”. Caregivers were contacted at least 1 month after patients’ demise. Methodology included phone interview and self-completion electronic form.

26 (66.7%) of 39 eligible caregivers responded and completed the survey. There were 13 (50%) caregivers each from inpatient and home care services. Amongst the caregivers, 22 (84.6%) responded through phone interview with a mean completion time of 16.7 minutes, and 4 (15.4%) responded through email. Positive responses were 92.7% for healthcare delivery, 90.4% for psychosocial support, 71.5% for information giving and 53.8% for training. 22 (84.6%) respondents gave a score of ≥8 for overall satisfaction towards care provided. For the question on information given about funeral services or arrangements upon the death of your loved one, only 30.8% rated as positive and 61.5% indicated as non-applicable.

This CGS has better response rate than the nation-level CGS (66.7% vs 49%). It highlights gaps in service provision, providing valuable information for benchmarking and service improvement efforts.