A palliative care strategic plan may be an entire health region's plan, or an aggregation of the region’s sub-units’ plans. The plan may be specifically for palliative care or a general health service plan that includes palliative care elements.
The palliative care elements in the plan must include all of the following aspects:
timeframe (the beginning and end-date in years), with a minimum time period of two years to demonstrate a strategic focus
measurable objectives relating to: service access, quality, utilisation, responsiveness and evaluation
demonstrated stakeholder involvement in plan development, such as the inclusion of a description of the consultation process in the strategic plan document
demonstrated links with the National Palliative Care Strategy
implementation strategies (can include resources identified for service delivery)
evidence of ongoing development in subsequent plans.
A strategic plan typically has a mission statement, outlines a vision, values and strategies, and includes goals and objectives. A strategic plan may: serve as a framework for decisions; provide a basis for more detailed planning; explain the business to others in order to inform, motivate and involve; assist benchmarking and performance monitoring; stimulate change and become a building block for next plan.
The plan will ideally address both palliative care at the specialist level and palliative care at the primary care (i.e. non-specialist) level.
CODE 1 Yes The administrative health region has a written strategic plan which incorporates palliative care elements, and which includes all specified strategic plan aspects.
CODE 2 No The administrative health region does not have a written strategic plan which incorporates palliative care elements, or has a plan with only partial coverage of the specified strategic plan aspects.
