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When a death occurs on a ward or unit, workload and stress levels increase as staff do their best to manage the deceased, their family and the relationship with external agencies. In many instances, ward or unit staff are unfamiliar with the end to end process or complexities required to appropriately manage this tender situation. In addition, they may be unable to provide families with the time and attention they require, due to their other clinical responsibilities.

Mortality management is an area where expertise is required to understand and manage the complexities of each death accurately, appropriately and in a timely manner. Within public hospitals where the loss of a patient affects many different people, it’s crucial that the needs of the patient, family, staff, hospital and external agencies are understood and met in their various ways.

Bereavement Care Services’ specialist team provides understanding and facilitation through all of the necessary processes, from pre-death interface with families until transfer of the deceased from the health care facility. Our culturally sensitive solution ensures those needs and rights of families are facilitated, offering an effective risk management tool in what is a highly charged emotional environment.

The goals of our Mortality Management service are:
  • Support families and ensure a positive start to their grieving process
  • Recognise and deliver a culturally sensitive service
  • Deliver a consistent high level of service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
  • Support hospital staff, so time is concentrated on core clinical activities
  • Ensure compliance with government and hospital legal requirements
  • Provide an effective risk management tool in a highly emotional environment
The processes facilitation includes:
  
  • Facilitation of the patient’s and their families wishes while
  • they are present in the hospital
  • Management of the deceased's personal effects and valuables
  • Fielding of all Hospital death related enquiries
Co-ordination with all internal departments and external agencies including:
  • Medical Team
  • Nursing Team
  • Cultural Teams
  • Chaplains
  • Mortality Audit groups
  • Coroner
  • Police
  • General Practitioners
  • NZ Eye Bank
  • Medical School
  • Funeral Directors
  • Goverment Departments
  • Facilitation of Hospital documentation and clinical notes
  • Obtaining Consent Completion of Hospital requirements
  • Management of limbs and tissue (resulting from amputation)
 Facilitation of preparation of pre term and stillborn babies:
  • Washing
  • Dressing
  • Presentation to Family
  • Management of mortuary activities
  • Post mortem consent
  • Post mortem co – ordination
  • Release of patient to Funeral Director

Tangible Benefits for Health Agencies

For any health care organization, services must be of consistently high quality and cost effective, with added value where cost benefits can be identified. Our Mortality Management service can demonstrate a time saving for hospital staff of up to 10 hours per patient Audits were performed onsite at South Auckland Health over a one month period in August 1995 and North Shore Hospital for a two-week period in December 1999. The audits encompassed all inpatient deaths for the relevant period. An audit of the current Bereavement Care model was performed at South Auckland Health over a three-month period between 1 May 2000 and 31 July 2000. , which equates to 5,000 staff hours saved for a hospital dealing with 500 deaths per year.

If the average stay of a patient is 48 hours, employing Bereavement Care Services allows the hospital to treat an additional 100 patients per year. The increase in resources arising from the support offered to Clinicians, Nursing and Administration staff enables their time to be re-directed for concentration on essential core activities, potentially providing a heightened quality of service.

Our service also ensures adherence to all of the hospitals legal requirements relating to the death of a patient. This includes the implementation of staff debriefing programs, and the facilitation of conflict resolution relating to any matters surrounding the death. This promotes a continuous quality improvement programme for both our service and the hospital, by augmenting staff understanding of the process.

Our Mortality Management service has obtained ISO9001 accreditation, and we have developed detailed policy and procedure manuals ensuring the highest quality standards are met throughout our organisation. We are dedicated to providing a quality, added value service which forms an integral part of the multi-disciplinary health care team.

Please contact us to find out more.

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