Vision of sustainable quality
Our vision on quality policy
Sint-Trudo Hospital has a clear vision on quality policy. The hospital has five focus points: Together - Transparent - Effective - Respect - Quality. In each of these aspects, we highlight the three equally important partners in care: the patients themselves and their relatives, the employees and doctors and also the external partners who help provide care. We define the role we see for each of them to work together as one team, for one goal: the best care close to home.
- Together: Each partner has its role in care, only by acting as one team we can guarantee the best care
- Transparent: We communicate internally and externally about the quality of care in our hospital and participate in public reporting.
- Effective: Effective stands for the fact that we want to provide safe care with a clear goal in mind. Therefore, we continuously renew and improve our processes, taking into account the latest available scientific guidelines. Each project is evaluated on its contribution to quality of care.
- Respect: We work within an open and stimulating culture in which feedback between healthcare providers, patients and partners is possible. This is an essential condition in improving patient safety. The organization takes into account what patients, their loved ones and staff can handle.
- Quality: We create space and time to take action to continuously improve the quality of care based on internal and external measurements.
Vision around freedom restricting measures (VBM)
A freedom restricting measure is a drastic measure for patients, caregivers and third parties.
For this reason, we strive in our hospital to pursue a restraint-poor policy in which the application of a freedom restricting measure is seen as an exceptional measure.
Only if it has been shown that there are no alternatives to guarantee the safety of the patient, treatment and the safety of others, will freedom-restricting measures be considered.
Principles of restraint measures:
- Each patient should be approached with dignity, autonomy, integral well-being and degree of self-sufficiency.
- The application of freedom restricting measures will only be done after
- consultation with a minimum of 1 fellow nurse and/or the attending physician.
- consultation and consent of the patient and/or legal representative and/or family.
- The restriction of freedom will always be kept as short as possible, and will be re-evaluated daily.
Vision around pain management
Pain is a very personal experience. With proper medication, pain can usually be well suppressed. Therefore, if you have pain, be sure to report it to your nurse.
Read more about our pain policy in the brochure below:
Vision around palliative care
Patients who are incurably ill, as well as their family members, can call on the Palliative Support Team (PST). This team consists of a doctor, two psychologists, two nurses, a pastor and a social nurse, all specialized in palliative care.
When treatments aimed at a cure are no longer possible, the Palliative Support Team seeks the most optimal care; comfort care. What this comfort care means for the individual patient is reviewed and discussed with himself and his family, as well as with the doctor, nurse, psychologist and social worker caring for the patient. In doing so, the team strives to provide the best possible physical care and optimal pain and symptom control, with great attention to the emotional and spiritual experience.
The Palliative Support Team also supports the patient and his family in their process of loss experiences: loss of health, work status, partner role and/or role in the family, changes in appearance, financial impact, diminishing circle of friends.
The team can also provide support for important ethical decisions in the care process. Ethical questions surrounding the approaching end of life, such as stopping treatments, palliative sedation and euthanasia can be discussed. The same applies to written living wills.
The opinions of the PST are always communicated to the attending physician, as he/she retains ultimate responsibility for care. Palliative patients are cared for on the ward by the attending team of physician(s) and nurses. Through interdisciplinary cooperation, much attention is paid to communication and information transfer between the various caregivers, the patient and his family. During counseling, we pay special attention to the children and teenagers involved.
The Palliative Support Team also works closely with the palliative care units and palliative home care teams to allow critically ill patients to stay in the most desirable and appropriate place at the end of life. For a seamless transition of care when a palliative patient is discharged, the PST actively collaborates with the home care unit:
- the primary care physician
- the home nurses and other paramedics
- the home care services
- Pallion (the Palliative Limburg Support Sequence)
- Panal (Palliative Network Arrondissement Leuven)
You can contact the Palliative Support Team on tel. 011 69 96 95 from Monday to Friday from 8:30 AM to 4:00 pm. Ask for the leaflet for more information on how the PST works.
The Palliative Support Team consists of:
- dr. Jolanda Verheezen, oncologist and palliative physician
- Wendy Thewis, palliative nurse
- Hilde Severijns and Stephanie Macoy, clinical psychologists
- Madeleine Burghoorn, pastor
- Marijke Vanderspikken, social nurse.
End-of-life vision
Sint-Trudo Hospital strives to provide optimal care and services for all patients based on a total people approach and supported by a Christian vision of faith. This assumes caring and meaningful end-of-life support.
The hospital's Palliative Support Team plays a crucial role in this. Ethical questions surrounding the approaching end of life, such as stopping treatments, palliative sedation and euthanasia are open for discussion. The palliative support team uses roadmaps when dealing with such questions, in order to avoid misunderstandings (both between patient and caregivers, and between caregivers themselves). Great importance is placed on communication and exchange of information between caregivers, the patient and his family.
Euthanasia is possible at Sint-Trudo Hospital if all legal requirements are met and if the physician is willing to perform the euthanasia according to the predetermined step-by-step plan.
As a patient, it is important to think about the end of life in advance. This is called early care planning. Early care planning means talking with your family members and involved caregivers about your wishes and your view of end-of-life care. If you want, you can also document this in a living will. That way caregivers/family members are aware of what you want and don't want at times when you are no longer able to indicate it yourself (e.g. when you are unconscious or irrevocably confused) or when you are no longer able to will. You can also designate a legal representative or trusted person who can and may make decisions on your behalf in such moments.
If you have questions about end-of-life, early care planning and the various wills, you can contact the Palliative Support Team. You can also find more information on the website of LEIF (LifeEnding Information Forum) and RWS (vzw Right to a Worthy End of life).