Abstract
The article considers selected foreign approaches to the systematic measurement of the quality of palliative care (i.e. in the USA, Australia and Belgium), which could provide inspiration for the Czech environment in this respect, both positively and negatively. The study concerns not only the field of palliative care but also the social care and services sector, where the systematic measurement of quality is still in the early stages.
The first part of the article presents palliative care in the context of social work and reminds us of their interconnection in terms of healthcare. It also provides a summary of existing knowledge regarding the development and use of quality indicators in palliative care.
The second part of the article, which compares the various foreign approaches to the systematic measurement of the quality of palliative care, concludes that successful expansion into widespread practice is based a) on consensus in terms of the selection of the quality indicators between stakeholders, providers, experts in the field and care and services end-users; b) on initiatives "from above" (the state/academic environment); c) on the voluntary participation of providers rather than their mandatory and delegated participation; and finally d) on the financing and/or technical provision of the collection of data and the subsequent analysis thereof.